8 MB - University of Toronto Magazine

A Shift in Perception How many senses do we have / Ingenious Medicine Drugs tailored to you / Physics, Fun Believe it!
David Rosenberg The sage of Bay Street / Linda Schuyler Mother of Degrassi / Clash of the Britons The civil war of 1812
Autumn 2012
How a common substance and an engineering
breakthrough could bring basic sanitation to two
billion people around the world

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Autumn 2012
Volume 40, No. 1
40 The Sage of Bay Street
David Rosenberg is one of Canada’s most
bearish economic analysts. But amid
global turmoil, is he softening his growl
by John Lorinc
26 A Shift in Perception
Every child learns
that humans have
five senses. But recent
discoveries in brain
science are leading to
new theories about how
we perceive the world
by Cynthia Macdonald
32 Frugal Thinking
How do you bring basic
sanitation to two billion
people in low-income
countries Reinvent the
toilet, for a start
by Patchen Barss
cover Photo: Chris thomaidis; above: Brent Lewin Autumn 2012 1

Departments
Autumn 2012 Volume 40 No. 1
Editor and Manager
Scott Anderson
Acting Deputy Editors
Karen Aagaard and Janet Rowe
Art Direction and Design
The Office of Gilbert Li
Editorial and Advertising Assistant
Nadia Van
Co-Publishers
Ania Lindenbergs, Senior Executive Director,
Advancement Communications and Marketing
Barbara Dick, Assistant Vice-President,
Alumni Relations
Editorial Office
T (416) 978-0838, F (416) 978-3958
uoft.magazine@utoronto.ca
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Nadia Van
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siuhong.van@utoronto.ca
You’re not trying to find a
perfect solution; you’re trying to
find something that works
– Prof. Dilip Soman on the philosophy behind “frugal innovation,” p. 37
All correspondence and undeliverable copies:
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23 Was the War of 1812
actually a civil war
50 Author Andrew Blum (MA 2002) follows the wires
behind the World Wide Web
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9 Prof. David Evans, dinosaur hunter, stares down a Giganotosaurus,
part of an exhibit he helped plan at the Royal Ontario Museum
3 Letters Getting People Moving
5 President’s Message Affordable Excellence
6 Calendar Run for the Cure
9 Life on Campus Digging Deep
19 Leading Edge Ingenious Medicine
46 Photo Contest Winners
49 All About Alumni Digital Prophet
56 Time Capsule Concrete Jungle
2 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA

Letters
To paraphrase the Cheshire Cat, if you
don’t know where you are going, any road
will take you there.
R.A. Jamieson
basc 1974, aurora, ontario
Getting People Moving
Having been a lay participant in the
early development of rapid transit for
York Region, I read “Escaping Gridlock”
(Summer 2012) with interest, but found
that it neglected to mention several
important points.
It’s well known that development
follows transit and vice versa. I hope
Metrolinx’s simulations take this into
account.
Toronto’s computer-controlled traffic
signals have not kept up with the times.
New wireless technology allows signalto-signal
optimization of traffic flows
at reasonable cost. Such systems have
already been implemented in San
Francisco and elsewhere.
I find it frustrating to hear the debate
over transit devolve to subways versus
LRT. Sloganeering polarizes the debate
by focusing on solutions before the
problem has been defined. To paraphrase
the Cheshire Cat, if you don’t
know where you are going, any road
will take you there.
In Los Angeles, dedicated toll
expressways charge by time of day and
provide discounts based on passenger
occupancy. In Toronto, I could see
charging tolls for the express lanes on
the 401 (although the ratio of collector
to express lanes might need to be
adjusted).
However these or other infrastructure
investments are to be funded, it needs
to be a GTA-wide endeavour so that
companies will locate where it makes
the best business sense, and not in
the municipality that subsidizes them
the most.
R. A. Jamieson
BASc 1974, Aurora, Ontario
Telecommuting Has Benefits
Your article “Escaping Gridlock” overlooked
one important point: most
people drive to work to sit at their
computers and answer the telephone
when, in fact, they can do this at home.
Companies should be legislated or
subsidized heavily to allow employees
to work at home on a part-time or fulltime
basis. Having tried telecommuting,
it is now inconceivable to me to drive
or take the TTC to work. Working at
home also has many benefits besides
not generating traffic – primarily, less
stress on the employee.
Cassandra Phillips
BSc 1978 Victoria, Toronto
New Highway Technology
An engineering alumnus, I am deeply
committed to eliminating congestion
from the world’s expressways. So I
was disappointed (but not surprised)
by the anti-car, transit-only stance of
“Escaping Gridlock.”
Since 2002, I have been developing
technology to prevent traffic congestion
on major highways. This technology
uses pavement-embedded lights to
guide individual drivers to the optimal
speed and spacing to ensure steady,
safe, fast and efficient expressway
traffic flow.
I estimate that a capital investment
of between $360 million and $720
million could completely eliminate
expressway congestion in the GTA.
That’s a fraction of the $50-billion cost
of Metrolinx’s Big Move transit plan.
What’s more, I estimate this technology
would yield net toll revenues of
$200 million to $600 million a year,
based on drivers paying up to $3 per
business day to use highways equipped
with the technology. In contrast,
Metrolinx’s Big Move will consume, in
perpetuity, a $1-billion annual taxpayerfunded
operating subsidy.
The vast majority of Toronto-area
commuters travel by car. These toolong-denigrated
car-driving voters
have the ballot box power to make my
vision a reality.
Steve Petrie
BASc 1972, Oakville, Ontario
Encouraging Sprawl
Contrary to the statement by geography
professor André Sorensen in “Escaping
Gridlock,” it wasn’t just free trade,
cheap gas and changes in the planning
process that drove business out of
Toronto. A major factor was – and
continues to be – a property tax system
that encourages sprawl. New development
in the suburbs is subsidized by
property taxes from the City of Toronto,
particularly downtown, where property
values are highest.
Articles such as this perpetuate the
idea that a problem 50 years in the
making can be fixed by building a few
high-cost transit lines that will require
Autumn 2012 3

large operating subsidies forever
from people who will never use them.
An architect I know in St. Louis,
Missouri, told me that a few LRT lines
were built there 10 years ago, but that
no one uses them because “they don’t
go where you want to go.” Given the
sprawl of businesses in the GTA and
the low-density housing, we face the
same problem. Why do we want to
repeat mistakes made elsewhere in
North America
David Vallance
BA 1967 New, Toronto
Patriotic Reminder
I agree with David Naylor’s well-phrased
comments in his recent President’s
Message (Summer 2012), as I often do.
I have no argument against universities
seeking a global presence as part of
a growth strategy. But I do have one
worry: If to achieve greater prominence
we increase diversity amongst faculty,
staff and students, do we risk forgetting
Canadian values How well does the
current U of T community understand
the character, history and culture of
Canada Do newcomers to Canada
appreciate that being a Canadian citizen
or resident comes with an obligation and
responsibility to protect and enhance
the country’s future
To some, this may sound overly
nationalistic. But when I look at the
situations people deal with in many
other countries, I feel doubly blessed
that I was born and grew up in Canada
and now live in the United States.
I wonder if recent generations hold
similar patriotic beliefs. And does the
University of Toronto, as a Canadian
institution, have a role in reminding
the new generation what Canada is
all about
Richard M. Clarke
BASc 1954, Westport, Connecticut
David Naylor responds:
I appreciate Richard Clarke’s thoughtful
comments about national identities
and values in an era of transnational
migration and globalization of higher
education.
Many international students come
to U of T with values similar to those
woven into the fabric of Canada. And
where that is not the case, students’
varied experiences inside and outside
the Canadian classroom should help
them see the world in new ways.
As to Canadian history and values
specifically, scholars in varied disciplines
at U of T have long been at the
forefront of articulating what it is to
be Canadian. We offer formal bridging
programs to some international students,
such as the Green Path program
for Chinese nationals at UTSC. As well,
the School of Continuing Studies
offers popular courses that help new
Canadians understand our context and
workplaces.
There are, however, no easy answers
here. Vice-President Deep Saini framed
these challenges in a brave speech last
April. He observed that diversity is a
great strength but we also need Canadian
society to be bound together with
some sense of “common purpose.”
Professor Saini added, incisively, that
“we are increasingly defining our identity
in terms of what we accept rather
than what we expect.”
Food for thought – as are the questions
posed by Richard Clarke.
Demand for Digital
For years, I have been wondering why
U of T Magazine is still distributed in a
paper format. In the summer issue, I
saw an ad noting that it’s possible to get
the magazine electronically. Finally!
Not only is this helping the environment,
but I am far more likely to look at
it electronically.
Robert Britton
BA 1974 Trinity, Toronto
Ed. note: Readers can trade their paper
magazine for an electronic one at
magazine.utoronto.ca/gopaperless
Write to Us!
Email uoft.magazine@utoronto.ca
4 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA

President’s Message
Accessible Excellence
U of T’s evergreen commitment
to student aid
Recently, university students in Quebec have been protesting
plans to boost tuitions in that province – currently
the lowest in Canada. One student leader has argued that
the proposed increases threaten the principle that “education
should be something that is available to everyone,
regardless of social status.”
That argument certainly sounds plausible. However, study
after study has shown that reducing or eliminating tuition
fees would make education less accessible to the very people
the students aim to help. Across Canada and in other parts
of the world, jurisdictions with low tuition fees tend to enrol
fewer university students per capita than those with higher
fees. In the European countries with free tuition, for example,
participation rates are about two-thirds of Canada’s. And
Quebec’s participation rates are sharply lower than Ontario’s.
Why A low- or no-tuition policy limits the supply of places
in universities. Conversely, higher tuitions make more spots
available. With enlightened policies that see institutions
using new revenues to discount tuitions for lower-income
students, more of those spots can be taken by the best and
brightest, regardless of socio-economic standing.
U of T has long provided bursaries to students in need,
and turned that practice into policy more than a decade
ago. In 2011, U of T spent $157 million on scholarships and
bursaries – or $2,416 for every full-time equivalent student.
That’s 36 per cent more than the average Ontario institution
(excluding U of T) spends on student aid. Thus, although
the “sticker price” of an arts degree at U of T is now about
$5,700 a year, the more than 2,000 students in the Faculty
of Arts and Science who receive support under the Ontario
Student Assistance Program effectively pay zero tuition
because of the financial support they receive from the university,
while 8,000 students pay $4,000 or less.
I believe the rate of growth in student debt should be
moderated. However, attacking that problem with
tuition reductions for all will simply benefit those who are
relatively well off. In that regard, 54 per cent of students
in first-entry programs at U of T already graduate with no
government loans.
Today’s accessible excellence at U of T is built in meaningful
measure on a legacy of student support provided by
alumni and friends. To sustain that legacy, our Boundless
campaign, launched almost a year ago, aims to raise $300 million
for student financial aid. Signaling the priority we place
on student support, U of T will match – in perpetuity –
the annual income generated by new endowed donations
of $25,000 and up, whenever those donations address the
financial needs of full-time undergraduates.
Last, while statistics on access and student aid are relevant,
sometimes a story is more salient. Wendy Cecil (BA 1971 VIC)
is a tireless volunteer and generous benefactor. She is the
Chancellor of Victoria and a former chair of the university’s
governing council. Cecil is also the first person from either
side of her family to ever attend university. She entered
U of T with a summer of hard-earned savings and a cheque
for an Ontario Scholarship that almost covered her first
year’s tuition fees. The next year, absent the scholarship,
she could not afford her second tuition installment. With
no expectation of student aid, young Wendy went to advise
the Vic bursar, Fred Stokes, about her intent to withdraw.
To her astonishment, Stokes simply said, “I think we can
find a little something to help you.” Cecil was tearful with
surprise at his kindness and her good fortune. She remains
certain today that the course of her life was changed by
that moment.
When Cecil shared this account with me, she added:
“My dream is that other students, who receive any form of
financial aid while at U of T, will feel the same debt of gratitude
that I feel for that assistance, and will come back to
serve and to give – so that others will have the opportunity
for a University of Toronto education.” These words beautifully
capture the cycle of generosity and opportunity that
I hope our alumni and friends will sustain now and in the
years ahead.
Sincerely,
David Naylor
Photo: © 2011 Gustavo Toledo Photography
Autumn 2012 5

Calendar
MORE EVENTS!
Check out the latest
campus happenings at
www.utoronto.ca.
grads). 6:30 p.m.–midnight,
W Hotel Hong Kong, 1 Austin Rd.,
Kowloon Station, Kowloon.
Contact: Teo Salgado, 416-978-
2368, teo.salgado@utoronto.ca,
alumni.utoronto.ca.
November 7
Vaughan Estate
Dept. of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology 125th Year Celebration
for Faculty and Alumni.
$60 for Professional Development
Day, $125 for reception and dinner.
Noon–10 p.m. 2075 Bayview Ave.
For info: obgyn.ug@utoronto.ca or
alumni.utoronto.ca/obgyn125.
SEPTEMBER 30
Run for the Cure
Canada’s largest single-day breast cancer charity event, the Canadian Breast Cancer
Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure, puts best foot forward on September 30 on two U of T
campuses. At St. George, meet at King’s College Circle at 9:15 a.m. In Mississauga, gather
at 3359 Mississauga Road North at 9:10 a.m. Volunteers run or walk one or five kilometres
to raise funds for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation’s work: scientific research,
community support programs and preventative health campaigns.
For more info and to register: Toronto: 416-977-CURE (2873), toronto@cbcfrun.org
Mississauga: 416-815-1313 ext. 316, mzito@cbcfrun.org, www.runforthecure.com
U of T student Dinosha Ravichandra at
Run for the Cure registration in 2011
November 15
The Eglinton Grand
University College Alumni of
Influence. The inaugural awards
gala and dinner to fete distinguished
grads. $100. 5:30 p.m. 400
Eglinton Ave. West. For info: 416-
978-7416 or uc.rsvp@utoronto.ca.
November 16
North Bay, Ontario
Alumni Group of the Near North.
Reception and hockey game
(Varsity Blues men vs. Nipissing
Lakers). $20. 7 p.m. Memorial Gardens
Arena, Nipissing University.
Contact: Deirdre Gomes, 416-978-
1669, deirdre.gomes@utoronto.ca,
alumni.utoronto.ca.
Exhibitions
Alumni
September 20 to 21
London, England
Business panels. The Canada-UK
Chamber of Commerce and U of T’s
Rotman School of Management
co-host. Thurs., 5:30–8:15 p.m.,
“How to Tackle Your Toughest Innovation
Challenges Using Design
Thinking,” £50 (£40 members of
Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce).
Fri., 8–10 a.m., “Winning by Competing
on Innovation,” £30 (£25
members). Canada House, 5 Trafalgar
Square. Contact: Teo Salgado,
416-978-2368, teo.salgado@
utoronto.ca, alumni.utoronto.ca.
October 2
New York City
Alumni Group of NY gathering.
Free appetizers. 6–9 p.m. Common
Ground, 206 Avenue A, New York
City. Contact: Deirdre Gomes,
416-978-1669, deirdre.gomes@
utoronto.ca, alumni.utoronto.ca.
October 9 to 10
IBBME
Institute of Biomaterials and
Biomedical Engineering 50th
Anniversary Symposium. Alumni
talks, Tues., noon–3 p.m. Galbraith
Bldg. room 202. Alumni Awards and
Banquet, Tues., 6 p.m. 89 Chestnut
St. Symposium highlighting cuttingedge
technological innovations,
Wed., 8 a.m.–7 p.m. 89 Chestnut
St. For more info: ibbme.utoronto.
ca/50th_Anniversary.
October 13
Hong Kong
Dinner gala. Prof. David Naylor
and Ms. Daisy Ho host alumni and
friends. CAD$195/HK$1,500
(CAD$130/HK$1,000 for recent
September 29
St. George Campus
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche @ U of T.
U of T hosts two installations during
the all-night art show, 7 p.m.–7 a.m.
Free. At Hart House, view several
performances and artworks involving
unconventional, iconoclastic
uses of the piano. At the U of T Art
Centre/University College quad,
experience an interactive multisensory
exhibit including touchactivated
mechanical sculptures.
For more info: jmbgallery.ca,
utac.utoronto.ca,
scotiabanknuitblanche.ca.
6 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
photo: CAZ ZYVATKAUSKAS

Pinhole camera images
show a unique perspective
on the War of 1812. At the
Royal Ontario Museum until
February 2013
October 8 to December 21
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
The John H. Meier Jr. Governor
General’s Literary Award for Fiction
Collection. First editions and
other items such as authors’ letters
celebrate the 75th anniversary of
the iconic literary prize. Free. Mon.
to Fri., 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Thurs. until
8 p.m. 120 St. George St. 416-978-
5285 or fisher.library.utoronto.ca/
events-exhibits.
To October 6
U of T Art Centre
Robert Wilson: Gould Variations.
The artist’s Horned Frog Video
Portraits combine images, trickling
water and frog vocalizations with
a Glenn Gould soundtrack. Free.
Tues.–Fri., noon–5 p.m. Sat., noon–
4 p.m. 15 King’s College Circle.
416-946-7089, utac.utoronto.ca.
October 23 to December 1
U of T Art Centre
Immersive Landscape: A Canadian
Year. Sixty landscapes from U of T
art collections include works by
Tom Thomson, A.Y. Jackson, Emily
Carr and Gordon Rayner. Free.
Tues.–Fri., noon–5 p.m. Sat.,
noon–4 p.m. 15 King’s College Circle.
416-946-7089, utac.utoronto.ca.
To February
ROM
Afterimage: Tod Ainslie’s Vision
of the War of 1812.The Burlington,
Ontario photographer designed
and built his own pinhole cameras,
then created 22 haunting images of
historically significant sites from
the conflict. $15 (free for members).
Mon.–Sat., 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m. For
more info: 416-586-8000, info@
rom.on.ca, rom.on.ca/exhibitions/
special/afterimage.php.
Lectures and Symposia
October 17
Munk School and Faculty of Law
A Conversation between Ken Roth
and Michael Ignatieff. The former
Liberal party leader talks with the
executive director of Human
Rights Watch. Free. 5:30–7 p.m.
Campbell Conference Facility.
RSVP required: Sherry McGratten,
sherry.mcgratten@utoronto.ca,
munkschool.utoronto.ca/events.
November 1
Woodsworth College
Big Data Meets Big Brother.
Political science prof Ron Deibert
connects technology, media and
politics in the annual Saul Goldstein
Memorial Lecture, followed by a
reception. Free. 119 St. George St.
To register: 416-978-5301,
events.woodsworth@utoronto.ca,
alumni.utoronto.ca/woodsworth.
Music
September 30
Hart House
“Guh” plays to Microcosmos.
The genre-bending brass band
performs a live musical score to
the award-winning 1996 insect
documentary, as part of Culture
Days. Free. 8 p.m. Hart House
Great Hall. harthouse.utoronto.ca/
culture/culturedays2012.
October and November
Walter Hall
Monday Evening Concerts.
$35 ($25 seniors, $10 students)
at 80 Queen’s Pk. 416-408-0208
or www.music.utoronto.ca/events.
Oct. 1, 7 p.m. The Juno-Awardwinning
Gryphon Trio performs
with alumnus James Campbell.
Nov. 5, 7 p.m. Bellows and Company:
accordionist Joe Macerollo
and clarinetist Peter Stoll.
Nov. 26, 7 p.m. The award-winning
Cecilia Quartet plays Brahms with
piano virtuoso Menahem Pressler.
October 4
MacMillan Theatre
U of T Symphony Orchestra.
The UTSO performs with clarinet
soloist Omar Ho. $20 ($15 seniors,
$10 students). 7:30 pm. 80 Queen’s
Pk. 416-408-0208 or www.music.
utoronto.ca/events.
November 20
Walter Hall
10 O’Clock Jazz Orchestra.
Saxophonist Mike Murley solos. $20
($15 seniors, $10 students). 7:30
p.m. 80 Queen’s Pk. 416-408-0208
or www.music.utoronto.ca/events.
November 22 to 25
MacMillan Theatre
Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. Nemorino
and Adina tangle with a love
potion in this comic opera. $35
($25 seniors, $10 students). Thurs.–
Sat., 7:30 p.m. Sun., 2:30 p.m.
80 Queen’s Pk. 416-408-0208 or
www.music.utoronto.ca/events.
Nature
October 6
Koffler Scientific Reserve
Mushrooms on the Moraine: Fall
Season. Learn how to identify wild
fungi with expert Richard Aaron. $75,
lunch included. 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m.,
17000 Dufferin St., King City,
Ontario. Pre-registration required:
ksr.utoronto.ca.
Special Events
September and October
St. George Campus
2012 Bibliomania on Campus.
College book sales for book lovers!
Sept. 20–24, Victoria College,
91 Charles St. W., 416-585-4585,
library.vicu.utoronto.ca/booksale.
Oct. 12–16, University College,
15 King’s College Circle, 416-978-
0372, www.uc.utoronto.ca.
Oct. 18-22, Trinity College, 6 Hoskin
Ave., 416-978-6750, www.trinity.
utoronto.ca/booksale.
Oct. 23–27, St. Michael’s College,
113 St. Joseph St., 416-926-1300
ext. 3475, stmikes.utoronto.ca.
November 9
St. George and Mississauga
Services of Remembrance. Free,
on Friday. St. George campus:
Soldier’s Tower, 10:20 a.m.–11 a.m.
7 Hart House Circle. For more info:
416-978-3485, alumni.utoronto.ca/
tower. Mississauga campus:
Instructional Centre, 10:45 a.m.
For more info: 905-828-5200.
November 20
Hart House
Centre of Criminology 50th Anniversary
Celebration. Free. Panel
discussion on the criminal justice
system, 2 p.m. Lecture on wrongful
convictions by the Hon. Justice Ian
Binnie, 4:30 p.m. Reception, 6 p.m.
RVSP required: 416-978-3722 ext.
226, crim.events@utoronto.ca,
criminology.utoronto.ca.
Sports
September and October
Varsity Centre
Games at 299 Bloor St. West.
Ticket info at varsityblues.ca.
Men’s Soccer. Sept. 30 vs. Carleton,
3:15 p.m. Oct. 14 vs. Ryerson, 3:15
p.m. Oct. 20 vs. Nipissing, 2:15 p.m.
Oct. 21 vs. Laurentian, 2:15 p.m.
Women’s Field Hockey. Sept. 22 vs.
Western, 10:45 a.m. and vs. York,
2:15 p.m. Sept. 23 vs. McGill, 10:45
a.m. Nov. 1–4, CIS championship.
Men’s Football. Oct. 6, vs. Ottawa,
1 p.m. Oct. 13, vs. York, 1 p.m.
Theatre
September to November
Hart House Theatre
$25 ($15 students and seniors).
Students, $10 every Wed. Alumni,
$15 every Thurs. 7 Hart House
Circle. For info: 416-978-8849,
uofttix.ca or harthousetheatre.ca.
Sept. 21–Oct. 6, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are Dead. The witty
riff on Hamlet. Wed. to Sat., 8 p.m.
Matinee on Sat., 2 p.m.
Oct. 17–22, My Name is Rachel
Corrie. An army bulldozer crushes
an American protester in Gaza.
Mature language and subjects.
Wed. to Sat., 8 p.m.
Nov. 7–24, Romeo and Juliet.
O wherefore art thou, U of T
Wed. to Sat., 8 p.m.
photo: TOD AINSLIE
autumn 2012 7

“I was an at-risk student
but a teacher helped turn
that around. Now, with
the support of donors,
I have the chance to
become a teacher and
help other kids like me.”
Dong-Ling Chen
Bachelor of Education, 2012
Vari Scholarship Recipient
BOUNDLESSpotential
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Life on Campus
“The first step is
always play”
Jason Harlow, a senior
physics lecturer, on
making science labs
successful
p. 14
Prof. David Evans stares down a Giganotosaurus
Digging Deep
How many new dinosaur species
can one person help find Professor
David Evans is up to eight
David Evans is on a high – and there’s a contact high you get
from talking to him.
The dig he was just on in Alberta uncovered a new species
of dinosaur; a blockbuster dinosaur exhibit he helped plan
opened at the Royal Ontario Museum; and, as if that weren’t
enough, he just got married. “We eloped to New Orleans,”
says the enthusiastic professor in the department of ecology
and evolutionary biology, who is also a curator at the ROM.
Each year for the last eight, Evans has gone to Milk River
in Alberta, where his team has unearthed eight new species
of dino. “One a year is more than we’d ever hoped to find.
This year’s is an early cousin of Triceratops; it’s got long
brow horns . . . and all sorts of spikes growing out of its head.”
The ROM exhibit, Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana,
shows off the huge beasts that once paced the southern
supercontinent of Gondwana 145 to 65 million years ago,
and uses novel technologies to do so. There’s an interactive
wall installation where (somewhat terrifyingly) the dinosaurs
react to your presence, and iPads that can clothe the displayed
bones with flesh and skin, to show what they might have
looked like (again, terrifying). Many of these creatures, dug
up in Africa and Madagascar, are relatively new to science,
let alone northern audiences: the enormous Futalognkosaurus
(“it was too big to fit anywhere but the lobby of the museum;
it weighed as much as an entire herd of elephants”);
Photo: Peter Andrew Lusztyk
Autumn 2012 9

Life on Campus
31 per cent of first-year students don’t seek help when
they don’t understand course material, according to the
National Survey of Student Engagement
Get it Got it. Good!
A new app lets
profs track student
comprehension
in real time
Liam Kaufman
Educators now have a better way to know if
they’re getting their point across in the classroom,
thanks to an invention by software
developer Liam Kaufman (BSc 2011).
Understoodit is a web-based application that
lets students anonymously express their bafflement
in class. When students load the tool on
their smartphones or laptops during class and
click a red “Confused” button, their input automatically
registers on the professor’s computer,
showing what percentage of the class is lost.
The teacher can re-explain things in the hope
students will hit the green “Understood” button,
which then conveys to the professor what percentage
has grasped the material.
Kaufman tested the software in three U of T
computer science classes this past February.
Students embraced the tool – perhaps because
it eliminates the fear of looking stupid in class
when asking a question, says Kaufman.
But the application was especially well
received by the profs, who said they appreciated getting instant feedback to help tweak
their delivery. Word-of-mouth buzz led to inquiries from 2,800 educators worldwide
within a few months.
Kaufman invited 200 of them to try his prototype. With the help of another software
developer and a user-interface expert, he used insights from the expanded test to
improve the service – including adding a feature that lets teachers poll students.
Kaufman originally wanted to be a neuroscientist – after earning a BSc in psychology
at Western University, he enrolled in medical science at U of T. But at the same time,
he dabbled in web design and became hooked; after completing his MSc in 2008, he
started a bachelor of computer science, which he finished last year.
He launched the upgraded tool in August and is keeping it free for students; he’s
charging teachers a monthly fee of $3, but those who register at understoodit.com
before October 3 can use it for free for a year. – Sharon Aschaiek
ephemera
U of T math professor emeritus Ed
Barbeau is able to produce this object
using only a pair of scissors and one
rectangular piece of paper. If you
believe that only one side of the sheet
faces up, look again.
This is one of many puzzles that Barbeau
used to present to his math class
for non-math students – often with
great results. “Being good at math
doesn’t necessarily make you good at
puzzles,” says Barbeau. “In fact,
English students scored very highly on
[my puzzles] because they approach
math in a non-standard way.”
Find more mathematical challenges
in Barbeau’s book After Math: Puzzles
and Brainteasers (Wall & Emerson,
1995). – Nadia Van
Cryolophosaurus (“it’s got a bizarre pompadour crest”);
and the Giganotosaurus (“a meat eater that could have
challenged the supremacy of T Rex”).
“Yes, they’re a pretty cool bunch of dinosaurs,” the 32-yearold
Evans sighs, with satisfaction. Like many, he was turned
on to dinosaurs early, by a childhood visit to the ROM’s galleries.
But unlike most others, he remained fascinated, turning
his passion into a career, pursuing studies at UBC and a
doctorate at U of T to deepen his knowledge. He’s been on
digs all over the world, from the high Arctic (“there’s a longer
digging season up there now”) to Mongolia to South Africa.
It was in the last location that the adventurous academic
had what must be the ultimate serendipitous find. The team
was letting off steam after several frustrating days, he says.
“We were leaning with our backs against a cliff wall, tossing
rocks. I happened to look at one before I threw it, and it had
a round outline. It was a dinosaur egg, and there were eight
more in a nest in the cliff.” They’d unearthed a 190-millionyear-old
dinosaur nursery. The find eventually persuaded
scientists that even the earliest dinos were more nurturing
than previously suspected. “These dinosaurs weren’t born
with teeth, so the parents may have fed them, like birds.” He
enthuses about their brain size (in general larger than long
thought) and waxes poetic on their social behaviours, such as
herding. “I mean,” he says, “they dominated the terrestrial
realm for 150 million years. And the last 30 years of research
has shown they’re not what we once thought – big dumb
lizards up to their armpits in swamps.” – Alec Scott
10 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
photo: left, Orbelina Cortez; right, Nadia Van

Life on Campus
The oldest rare book donated by F. Michael Walsh to
U of T is a first edition of the first part of Thomas Aquinas’s
Summa Theologica, printed in 1473
A Bold Prescription
Support for medical students
is a key plank of the Faculty of
Medicine’s campaign
Philanthropist Terrence Donnelly (centre)
with graduating medical students
it’s a classic case of students helping
students.
Except that instead of swapping
study strategies or sharing lecture
notes, graduating medical students
at the University of Toronto are
helping their fellow undergrads by
throwing serious financial muscle
into bursaries and scholarships.
Each year, the graduating students
volunteer to produce Toronto
Notes – a study guide sold around
the world to help students prepare
for medical licensing exams. To
date, the group has donated $2 million
in proceeds from the successful
guide towards financial support
for their peers in the MD program.
On September 13, as the Faculty
of Medicine launched a historic,
$500-million fundraising campaign at the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and
Biomolecular Research, the Toronto Notes effort was lauded as a prime example of
philanthropy’s direct impact on students. “We train health care leaders – people
whose passion, dedication and research will literally shape the future of health care,”
said Dean Catharine Whiteside before the packed launch event, which drew hundreds
of supporters. “Gifts such as this enable our bright young scholars to focus on the
learning, research and practical knowledge that help them develop as innovators
and leaders.”
The Toronto Notes donation – accumulated over the 29 years the guide has been
published – is believed to be among the largest-ever student-led gifts to a Canadian
university; it provides financial support for dozens of MD students each year. This
support is critical, Whiteside says, since the average debt load for medical students
upon graduation is $84,000.
The faculty’s fundraising campaign aims to generate $100 million for student support
and programs. “In Ontario alone, we train more than half of all practising specialists
and one-third of all family physicians,” says Whiteside. “Our students are the lifeblood
of the country’s health-care system, and their impact is international as well, so supporting
them is critical.”
Ahmed Taher, a third-year MD student who trained as a paramedic while studying
and serving as president of the Medical Society, said bursaries enabled him to “have a
well-rounded learning experience without worrying about overwhelming debt.”
Toronto Notes co-production manager Elsa Clouatre said the group’s goal is to continue
supporting students such as Taher with proceeds from the text. The guide –
which started as a compilation of notes written by and shared among U of T medical
students – is now produced with faculty experts.
Alongside student support, Medicine’s campaign aims to raise funds to attract and
retain world-leading professors and invest in infrastructure to drive research and
health innovation in four areas: human development, global health, neuroscience and
brain health, and complex diseases. For more information or to support the Faculty of
Medicine’s campaign, please visit www.medicine.utoronto.ca – April Kemick
Why I Give
F. Michael Walsh
A book collector for more than
40 years, Walsh has acquired several
thousand rare and antiquarian volumes
of western philosophy. In 1999, he
began donating his collection to U of T’s
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.
“I’ve always had a love of books, not
just for reading but as physical objects.
I studied philosophy, eventually earning
a PhD, and became especially
interested in books of philosophy and
ideas but couldn’t afford the original
publications. Later, once I got into
the investment industry, I felt financially
secure enough to begin buying
rare books.
“One summer, over 30 years ago,
I received a phone call from Toronto
bookseller Don Lake: ‘How would I like
a first edition of Hume’s Treatise’ He
had access to one locally, but I would
have to decide quickly. The book, at
$11,500, was priced fairly, but this was
20 times more than I had previously
spent on an ‘expensive’ book – a very
big leap! I had received a good bonus
that year, and here was one of the
greatest and rarest philosophy books of
all time. I think I took delivery the next
day, handing over my cheque. That
was when I knew there was no turning
back as a collector – I was hooked!
“I hope my collection, with its first
editions and other rare items, will
enable the university to continue to
attract the world’s best philosophy
students and researchers. I’d like the
collection to continue to grow after
I’m gone; that’s why this year I began
endowing a fund that will allow the
Fisher library to purchase items for
the Walsh Philosophy Collection long
into the future.”
As told to Scott Anderson
photo: Caz Zyvatkauskas; Right: Courtesy of F. Michael Walsh
Autumn 2012 11

Life on Campus
Rotman School MBAs earn, on average, $85,000 in the
first year after graduation
sound bites
What’s your favourite thing about
U of T in the fall
The view of the trees from the
third floor of the H-wing at
UTSC. The bursts of colour are
always stunning
Karen K. Ho
The red ivy on Hart House. The
palpable excitement of a new
school year
Kristine Morris
Open for Business
On St. George Street, north of Hoskin, a shiny glass
cube now perches above a red brick heritage house.
The glass structure, which is also connected to the
modernist-style edifice next door, is the spacious
new addition to the Rotman School of Management
that opened on September 5 after three years of
construction. Melding the buildings was deliberate,
says one of the architects, Bruce Kuwabara –
intended to reflect visually the business school’s
catchphrase: Integrative Thinking.
Inside, all that glass also lets in natural light to
stairwells, the café, and the 400-seat event room,
helping the school save on electricity costs. The
architects also designed natural gathering spaces
throughout the $90-million building, including
several grassy rooftop terraces with spectacular
views of the city.
The school’s 11 research centres are at last all
under one roof. And all that elbow room will let the
school expand its program size as well; they’ll soon
take in 50 per cent more full-time MBA and 30 per
cent more PhD candidates. “By reaching a certain
scale, we gain competitive advantage in the global
business education market,” says Roger Martin,
dean of the Rotman School. – Janet Rowe
The picture-perfect campus and
the brilliant energy that comes
with fresh beginnings
Niya B
Halloween parties
Kerlym Mata
Join the conversation at
twitter.com/uoftmagazine.
Poll
Do you Google
your professors
It’s possible to search – and find – almost anything in the age of Google,
yet only 55 per cent of U of T students choose to conduct online background
checks of their professors. Those who take advantage of the search
engine cite research compatibility and curiosity about other students’
feedback as their primary motives. Slightly more than half of these students
use the website ratemyprofessor.com and 36 per cent try to find their
profs on Facebook.
Alumna Ang Lee from U of T Scarborough is one who encourages other
students to conduct research online into their professors’ teaching experience
and grading style – “especially if you are serious about maximizing
your own potential,” she says. – Nadia Van
This highly unscientific poll of 100 U of T students was conducted on the
St. George campus in July.
Google
Professor Smith
55%
Yes
45%
No
12 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
Photo: Tom Arban/Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects

Life on Campus
About 2.5 million people attended the 2011 hajj in Mecca,
with 1.8 million travelling from outside Saudi Arabia
Leap of Faith
New degree program
designed to promote
understanding between
Christians and Muslims
Students (from left) Khaiam Dan, Seniha Yildiz and
Abier El Barbary were among the first to enrol in the
Muslim Studies Program at Emmanuel College
This fall, Emmanuel College will
officially launch a Muslim Studies
program that is being called the
first of its kind at a Canadian
university. The courses, offered as
part of a Master of Pastoral Studies
degree, are designed to promote
interfaith dialogue between Muslims
and Christians, and prepare
graduates for leadership roles
within Canada’s fast-growing
Islamic community.
The two-year, full-time graduate
program will enable students from
a variety of religious communities
to specialize in pastoral care, serve
as chaplains or work with social
service agencies and not-for-profit
organizations, principally in
Toronto, that cater to Muslims.
“Today, anyone who takes religion
seriously needs to become
fluent in the language of interfaith
conversation,” says Mark Toulouse,
the principal of Emmanuel College
and a professor of the history of
Christianity. He adds that the new
program aims to foster a better
public understanding and appreciation
of Islam in Canada.
The number of Canadians who
identify as Muslim has doubled in the past decade to 940,000. In comparison, the
Roman Catholic and Protestant churches have several million adherents, but growth
is flat or declining. Polls show that many Christian Canadians both misunderstand
and fear Islam, so Emmanuel’s new program is an important and timely effort to
bridge that divide, says Toulouse.
“The program not only provides educational opportunities at the master’s level
for the growing Muslim population, but also promotes dialogue, understanding
and respect between current and future Christian and Muslim leaders in Canada,”
he says.
The Muslim Studies program, developed in close consultation with Islamic leaders
in Ontario, will offer students a selection of 20 courses in the Qur’an, the history and
theological tradition of Islam, Islamic law, biomedical ethics
Today, anyone
who takes religion
seriously needs
to become fluent
in the language
of interfaith
conversation
and religious pluralism, among others.
The master’s program is the outgrowth of Emmanuel College’s
groundbreaking and successful Canadian Certificate in Muslim
Studies, launched in 2010 to enhance interfaith dialogue. It
has been recently broadened to include courses on such topics
as Muslims in Canada, spiritual care, and women and gender.
– Andrew Mitrovica
People
They work with tiny molecules but are
giants in their fields, known for innovative
research and inspired teaching.
Now, Prof. Lewis Kay and Prof. Mark
Lautens also hold the title of University
Professor, the highest honour
awarded to a U of T faculty member.
Prof. Keren Rice, an international
leader in the empirical study of
aboriginal languages, has received the
Molson Prize in the humanities and
social sciences. The $50,000 award
recognizes lifetime achievement and
ongoing contributions to the cultural
and intellectual life of Canada.
Prof. Milica Radisic and Prof. Craig
Simmons of bioengineering are recipients
of this year’s McLean Award,
which honours U of T professors for
excellence in basic research in the
sciences, mathematics and statistics.
Recipients must have received their
PhD within the past 12 years.
Christian Campbell, a professor of
English, travelled to London, England,
in June to represent the Bahamas at
the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. He joined
more than 200 poets from across the
world for what was described as the
world’s largest gathering of poets,
rappers and storytellers.
Prof. Barbara Sherwood Lollar
of geochemistry has received the Eni
Award for the Protection of the
Environment, in recognition of her
research into groundwater contamination.
The award, presented in Rome
by the president of the Italian Republic,
includes a gold medal crafted by the
Italian state mint.
Three U of T doctoral students have
been awarded Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Foundation Scholarships, worth
$60,000 over three years. Sara Angel
(art history) is examining how new
communications technologies can
help museums stay relevant; Matthew
Gordner (political science) is studying
events such as the Arab Spring to
understand how Islamic intellectual
and political thought has addressed
democracy since 1928; and Michael
Pal (law) is interested in how election
laws in Canada affect political parties
and democracy.
photo: Amanda Keenan
Autumn 2012 13

Life on Campus
Physics That’s Practically Fun
Students give high marks to a
new kind of science lab
Jason Harlow (fourth from left) with
first-year physics students
Intro to Physics might not be everyone’s idea of a good time,
but a new style of teaching in U of T’s department of physics
is giving students a collegial, hands-on way of understanding
the basics of the physical universe.
Prompted by student feedback over the years and developed
from leading-edge pedagogical research, the Physics
Practicals are the interactive component to U of T’s introductory
courses for non-physics science majors. Based on the
timeless truth that you learn more by doing than by listening,
the Practicals engage some 800 to 1,200 undergraduates per
year in a new kind of lab experience.
“The first step is always play,” says senior lecturer Jason
Harlow, who has taught the Practicals since their inception
in 2008. “That’s our model – just mess around and see what
you can discover.”
As an example, Harlow describes the Practicals’ lesson
on circuits: “Here’s a battery, here are a couple of wires, and
here’s a light bulb. Now, how do you make the light bulb
work” Together, the students figure it out. “Then, we talk
about current and voltage.”
In the past, students attended both labs and tutorials –
mini-lectures in which the teaching assistant would stand at
the front and talk, says Harlow, who graduated from U of T
with a BSc in physics in 1993. Chairs were often bolted to the
ground and they all faced forward. Frequently, lab activities
were not aligned with the formal lectures.
The Physics Practicals’ three rooms have been designed to
include nine work stations, each with four students, who can
either sit or stand around a table as they experiment, discuss
and learn. Two teaching assistants circulate through the
room, and all students work at the same time on the same
activity, which is related to a recent lecture.
Harlow notes that the Practicals often resemble a coffee
shop full of lively conversations. “Except they’re all talking
about physics,” he says. “It’s working fantastically.” Student
satisfaction has risen 22 per cent over the past three years.
The Ontario Association of Physics Teachers has been
following this new pedagogy; some of U of T’s course materials
are now being used by the province’s high schools. And
earlier this year, senior lecturer emeritus David Harrison (PhD
1972), one of the originators of the Practicals, was honoured
by the Canadian Association of Physicists for his longstanding
dedication to transforming physics education.
Funding is now being sought for two more rooms to
accommodate advanced Practicals for the physics majors.
“We want to improve the experience for these students as
well,” says Harlow. – Allyson Rowley
Do the Locomotion
A vibrantly decorated GO train car is raising awareness about the environment
– and giving students in the Collaborative Program at U of T’s Knowledge
Media Design Institute a practical lesson in getting a message out.
Using QR codes inside the coach, riders can download a free Android
app containing video messages on a range of green issues from experts
such as architect Bruce Kuwabara and U of T economics professor
David Foot, plus an invitation to post their reactions to an embedded
Twitter feed.
The project was a challenge, explains Joseph Ferenbok, assistant director
of KMDI, who asked the students to raise awareness of a social issue
through multiple media channels. The students helped brainstorm ideas
for the multi-pronged project, which was then executed by a local artist
group, “No.9.”
The Art Train Conductor No.9 coach rotates between trains on the GTA
and Hamilton GO network until December 1. Not a GO rider Join in anyway
at arttrain.no9.ca. – Janet Rowe
14 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
Photo: top. Amanda Keenan; bottom, James Didonato courtesy of No.9: Contemporary Art & the Environment

Life on Campus
U of T’s longest-serving chancellor, Edward Blake, held
the office from 1876 to 1900. In his spare time, he served
as leader of the federal Liberal party
Q&A
Blue and White Pride
New chancellor Michael Wilson
is pumped to champion U of T spirit
In July, the Honourable Michael Wilson, the chairman of
Barclays Capital Canada, became U of T’s 33 rd chancellor.
Wilson, who earned a commerce degree from U of T in 1959,
has spent much of his career in financial services. He also held
public office – serving as finance minister in Brian Mulroney’s
government – and has been active in many community
organizations. He spoke recently with editor Scott Anderson
about his new role.
Do you have any standout memories from your time at Trinity
College I played guard on the Trinity football team that
won the Mulock Cup in 1957. Our team played well together
and I stayed good friends with a bunch of those people to
this day. Sports were a big part of my life at Trinity.
Probably bigger than they are to most of today’s students . . .
This is something I find a little sad. Sports just don’t have the
same position in student life as they did in the 1950s. We
used to go to every Varsity Blues football game. The stadium
seated 25,000 and it was usually pretty full.
Students today seem quite focused on their studies.
There’s nothing wrong with that. But I think you can combine
academics with sports. I’m in business, but I don’t spend
100 per cent of my time on business.
How do you view the chancellor’s role To represent U of T
in a variety of settings. But I think you also make your own
role as chancellor, depending on the circumstances of the
time. I had a warm-up as chancellor at Trinity so I have some
understanding of what the job is all about – although the
activities of the chancellor of U of T are certainly greater
than they are at a college.
What made you want to take the job It’s an honour. U of T
is my alma mater. I’ve long admired the university from my
life in politics and business – particularly the quality of its
graduates and its leading position in research.
What message will you impart over your term as chancellor
The importance of the research that’s done at U of T and
the importance of U of T within higher education in Canada.
We need to let people know what a great institution U of T is.
As is pointed out regularly, U of T is a leader in Canada – but
also globally in a number of areas.
Canadians are not known for championing their accomplishments
to the world. Yes, and it’s not easy. Many countries
have also achieved a lot. My job as the Canadian ambassador
in Washington taught me that there are a lot of things that
Canada brings to the world: our role in Afghanistan, our
performance during the financial crisis, our achievements
and stars in the arts.
An ever-present challenge for universities is funding. What
are your thoughts on this issue A crucial part of that funding
challenge is stewardship – making sure that the alumni,
corporations and foundations who are the university’s chief
private financial supporters have a good understanding of
what is going on at the university. As chancellor, I can help
make sure they understand the important role that U of T
plays in Toronto and the country. We have many great supporters
of the university. We just have to keep that spirit alive
within them – and that comes from making sure that they
have exposure to the good work that’s done at U of T.
As chancellor, you will preside over many convocation ceremonies.
What will you say to new graduates Enjoy what
you do. If you really enjoy what you do you’ll never work a
day in your life. Departing students should also recognize . . .
that this institution’s great 185-year record can continue only
if alumni continue to give their support. New grads ought
to feel a sense of pride in their achievements and a sense of
ownership in their university.
Photo: sam kittner/kittner.com
Autumn 2012 15

Life on Campus
Between 2007 and 2011, U of T engineers worked on the
patents for more than 361 inventions
Text to come
An Incubator for
Innovation
A new applied science
facility will give engineering
students a place to develop
entrepreneurial ideas
Just this summer, a U of T team
including electrical engineers,
engineering physicists and chemists
used organic chemistry techniques
to build a new kind of solar cell
that’s almost 40 per cent more
efficient than existing ones. The
multidisciplinary makeup of the
team was key to their breakthrough,
but this kind of creative problemsolving
isn’t just serendipity. It can
be nurtured – and the Faculty of
Applied Science and Engineering
has big plans to do just that. Fundraising
has begun to build a new
Centre for Engineering Innovation
and Entrepreneurship on St.
George Street, next to the existing
engineering complex.
The high-tech facility will stimulate
innovative and entrepreneurial
thinking by creating a common
space for engineers from different
disciplines. Students and professors
working on everything from pollution-absorbing
concrete to cars that
talk to you and to the traffic around them will rub elbows daily, sharing their different
insights and approaches to problems. Students won’t just get a more rounded education
or enjoy an exciting creative atmosphere – they’ll graduate well-prepared for a
career that increasingly demands an entrepreneurial outlook. “Proximity matters,” says
David Sinton, director of the faculty’s Centre for Sustainable Energy. “I hope the multidisciplinary
spirit will permeate the building. Collecting faculty units focused on
global innovation, design, energy and sustainability under one roof is an exciting and
unique opportunity.”
Even the building itself will be designed to spark creative collaboration, with openconcept
workspaces adjacent to a facility where students, professors and industry
partners can quickly build and test prototypes; a “hatchery” space will be dedicated
to nurturing student-led business startups. The proposed shared spaces are part
of an intensive focus on cross-disciplinary teaching and research that is a core goal
for U of T. “Through its multidisciplinary and collaborative intent and its exceptionally
flexible design, the Centre for Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship
embodies the future of the faculty,” says Dean Cristina Amon.
Fundraising for the $88-million project kicked off with $1-million donations from
alumni Paul Cadario (BASc 1973) and Peter Allen (BASc 1962), plus a $5-million gift
from George Myhal (BASc 1978), a senior partner at Brookfield Asset Management in
Toronto and chair of the engineering wing of U of T’s Boundless campaign. “Cristina
Amon’s leadership has helped to propel U of T Engineering onto the global stage,” says
Myhal. “This is an investment in Dean Amon’s vision for Engineering, and the ability
of its faculty and students to make a transformational impact in Canada and across
the world.” The faculty hopes to break ground by mid-2014. – janet rowe
Lifelong Learner
Jessie Current believed in the
value of education, and created
scholarships so others could
follow their academic dreams
A U of T alumna who taught in the
department of household sciences
and, after retiring, took courses well
into her 80s, has left a bequest to the
university so that others might have
the opportunity to learn.
A $1-million gift from the estate of
Jessie Current has created bursaries
for graduate and undergraduate students.
A fellowship will be awarded
to two graduate students in chemistry
on the basis of financial need, and
an undergraduate scholarship worth
$5,000 a year will support up to four
students throughout a four-year
science program.
The Roberts Scholarship and Roberts
Fellowship are named in honour of
Current and her siblings, James and
Ina Roberts, who predeceased her.
Current died last year at age 108.
Lynne Golding (BA 1984 VIC), who
is Current’s cousin, says her elder
relative loved learning, so when it came
time for her to decide what to do with
her estate, there was never any question
that U of T would be a beneficiary.
“She was very attached to academia,”
says Golding.
Current was also aware that not
everyone could afford to attend university.
“She was a strong believer in
the value of education, and its ability
to bring people dignity,” says Golding.
Born in 1903 in Brampton, Ontario,
Current was the youngest of three siblings.
Her brother James graduated
from U of T Dental College, receiving
his degree in uniform and then serving
with the No. 4 General Hospital, U of T.
He was killed on active duty in France
in 1918. Her sister Ina (BA 1919 VIC) did
research in U of T’s chemistry department,
and later lectured at the University
of Manitoba. Current played Varsity
women’s hockey until a knee injury
sidelined her. She graduated from
Victoria College in 1925, and went on
to a career in academia, eventually
becoming the acting dean of U of T’s
department of household sciences. At
50, she married and retired from the
university. – Scott Anderson
16 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
photo: jason kb photo

Photo: University of toronto Archives - november 11, 1924
THEy
PrOTECTEd
Us.
WE PrOTECT
THEir MEMOry.
Soldiers’ Tower was built in 1924, funded
by donations from alumni of the University
of Toronto. This Remembrance Day, our
community will gather under a fully
restored Soldiers’ Tower, thanks to the
generosity of our alumni and friends. Once
again, alumni like you have helped raise
more than $1M to return the Tower to its
original glory. Thank you!
Preserving the Soldiers’ Tower and the
memory of the 1,185 alumni, students,
staff and faculty who gave their lives
in the two world wars continues to be a
sacred responsibility. With your help, we
will ensure this monument to bravery and
sacrifice continues to stand strong for
many years and many generations to come.
Please make your gift to the Soldiers’
Tower Fund today. We hope you will join
us on Friday November 9th 2012 for our
annual service of remembrance.
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Leading Edge
“How many times
did your parents ...
encourage you to be
by yourself forever”
Prof. Michael Cobb says
being single is underrated
p. 21
Ingenious Medicine
Genetic testing may soon reveal
what pharmaceutical drugs work best
for you, with fewest side-effects
More medications than ever before are available for people
who have depression. Yet only about a third of patients find
an antidepressant that relieves their symptoms. Another
third experience little or no improvement. Side-effects also
vary: some people get an upset stomach, others can’t sleep or
sleep too much and still others experience sexual dysfunction.
If we could only make accurate predictions about how people
will respond to particular drugs, many more people would be
helped in a timely manner.
This is the goal of the Canadian Depression Biomarker
Network. Headed by Sidney Kennedy, a U of T professor of
psychiatry, the team of researchers will be looking at genes,
blood proteins and brain images to see if they can predict
how patients will respond to medication.
Finding objective measures – so-called “biomarkers” –
that can predict how a treatment will work has been difficult
in psychiatry compared with other branches of medicine,
such as cardiology. There are many ways for a brain to
malfunction, says Kennedy, but to date, few biomarkers for
depression are known. Instead, doctors have relied mostly
on a patient’s symptoms to prescribe a treatment.
Illustration: Daniel Stolle Autumn 2012 19

Leading Edge
The problem is that different mechanisms
in the brain might be working together to
produce similar symptoms in patients.
In an effort to tease apart these different
mechanisms and to find ways to predict how
different types of depression will respond to
treatments, the researchers are recruiting 300
patients and 100 healthy subjects at six academic
centres across Canada. The study will take three
years. The researchers will look to see which
gene variants the study participants have and
which proteins those genes produce, with a
particular focus on those known to play a role
in depression or in how the body processes antidepressants.
The researchers will also assess
the patients for anxiety and how clearly they are
able to think, take their family medical history
and note any traumatic life events. Finally, they
will use EEG to map brainwave activity and
functional magnetic resonance imaging to track
bloodflow to see what’s going on in the depressed
– or recovering – person’s brain.
These data are being collected at three points
in the study: before starting on medication, two
weeks after starting, and at the eight-week mark.
All patients will take the same drug, escitalopram.
Kennedy’s aim is to find out what distinguishes
the people who do well quickly, the people who
do well eventually and the people who never do
well on a given antidepressant. It may be that
people with a certain combination of genes plus
certain brain imaging and blood results can be
identified in advance as good responders. “We
believe if we combine enough of these markers,
we will be able to predict the right treatment for
individual patients,” he says.
Kennedy expects that, once it is easier to predict
who benefits from what, drug companies
will begin to target their medications more specifically.
Rather than claiming only 40 per cent
of all depressed patients improved, for instance,
they might be able to claim 80 or 90 per cent in
particular subpopulations – groups that will be
objectively identified through biomarkers.
In the end, says Kennedy, biomarkers will not
only help confirm which people do have depression,
what type of depression they have and
what medication might work best, they may also
point the way to the causes – leading to novel
treatments. – Alison Motluk
Property Value
Toronto’s land-use maps are
important planning tools but they lack
detail and are often out-of-date.
Not for much longer
One wall of the boardroom at U of T’s Cities Centre is covered by an
intricate, multi-hued map of Greater Toronto. At first glance, it looks like
a large version of a typical land-use planning chart. But for geographers
André Sorensen and Paul Hess, the giant map represents a highly detailed
answer to an elusive riddle: how is land actually being used in the suburbs
“Our primary goal,” says Sorensen, “is to study what we have built
over the last 60 years.”
Municipal planning diagrams don’t provide much detail, and the province
doesn’t make its land-use data available to researchers. As well, zoning
and approved uses for a particular site don’t necessarily correspond to
what ended up being built there.
To fill the void of accurate data, Sorensen and Hess recruited about three
dozen students to meticulously code the actual land uses on each piece
of property across the GTA. (They excluded parts of downtown Toronto
because large buildings often contain multiple uses, and are difficult
to classify). Their research tool: Google Street View, which allows users to
zoom in and “see” what’s happening at ground level in every nook and
cranny of the city. “It’s very laborious,” admits Sorensen, noting that in
three years the team has coded five million parcels of land; the analysis
will continue for another two years. The aim is to create a baseline, and
then update it every five years in tandem with the census.
Once complete, the project will yield a far more detailed map of land use
in the GTA than has ever been publicly available. What’s more, by cataloguing
what’s actually taken root in post-war subdivisions and combining
this information with census data and zoning rules, Sorensen and Hess
believe they will develop a much keener understanding of what kinds of
planning policies yielded the sorts of compact, mixed-used communities
that are still rare in suburban municipalities. “We’re still building the
dream city of the 1950s,” muses Sorensen. “There are places where this
pattern was changed, and we’re looking at why.” – John Lorinc
20 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
photo: Juan Batet/iSTOCKPHOTO

Leading Edge
In the U.S., more than 50 per cent of adults are single,
and roughly one out of every seven live alone
The Big Idea
The Single Life
Is ‘one’ really the loneliest number
“How many movies have you gone to recently where a single
person has been featured, happily, strongly, without any
kind of lurking sadness or loss” asks Michael Cobb. “How
many times did your parents when you were growing up
encourage you to be by yourself forever”
More than four times as many Canadians live alone today
as in 1941 – even though people have many more options
now when it comes to relationships, including common-law
and gay marriage. But singles are still stigmatized, says Cobb,
a professor of English at U of T. Despite a vast change in our
approach to relationships, society’s zeal for conformity and
control pushes people to couple off, Cobb argues, and this
pressure distorts the lives of both singles and couples.
In his latest book, Single: Arguments for the Uncoupled
(NYU Press, 2012), Cobb draws on literary characters such as
Herman Melville’s Bartleby and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible
Man to suggest how singles might resist coupledom. But by
and large, he says, not many positive representations of
single people exist in our culture. Even popular touchstones
that purport to celebrate singleness, such as Sex and the City,
are actually about the desperate need to couple.
The problem, says Cobb, is that our culture’s emphasis on
coupledom – the belief that it completes us and represents
the most important emotional relationship we can have – has
blinded us to other possibilities. In his book, Cobb suggests
that couples displace their own anxieties – particularly a
morbid fear of loneliness – onto singles with the result that
singles are never seen clearly for who they are.
Singles aren’t necessarily lonely, of course, but they’re
widely thought to be, “and loneliness, as we’re frequently
reminded, has terrible consequences.” Part of the book, says
Cobb, stems from his own experience of being happily single,
with an interesting career and great friends. “No one in my
world thought I was happy and it was because I wasn’t partnered
off.” At the same time, he concedes single life is not all
fun and games: “It’s often quite hard, quite painful, especially
in a world that doesn’t want you to exist.” But he maintains
it offers something valuable.
Where coupledom shrinks your horizons, forcing you to
concentrate on one relationship at the expense of the world
at large, singleness allows you grander vistas, bolder visions.
Singles might be adventurers rather than lovers, figures like
the painters Georgia O’Keeffe and Agnes Martin who toiled
in desert-solitude and came to a new view of the world. “The
single . . . can teach us to open ourselves up to the world of
isolation and distance, which might give us, not eternity, but
something not so outside of time and impossible to achieve,”
Cobb writes. “The single can teach us how to be alone – ‘all
one,’ as the word alone etymologically suggests.”
In the long run, this could benefit couples as much as
singles, he says. If we stop idealizing couples and start
endorsing singles, it could take the pressure off everybody,
allowing even people within relationships to have a little
more room to be themselves. “It’s all about trying to get past
a certain institutionalization of the importance of coupledom
and marriage and allow us to have more breathing
room. I’m not against people who have relationships,” says
Cobb. But the personal, historical, cultural and economic
priority we put on capital-R relationships – “I think that
needs to be changed.” – Brent Ledger
Lingo
cash mob
The notion, held dear by some
consumers, that one should shop
at local mom-and-pop establishments
rather than large chain
stores has taken on a new twist in
the age of social media.
The “cash mob” is a variation of
the flash mob. But instead of hundreds
of people showing up in a
public place at the same time to
sing or dance, cash mobs designate
a day to visit a local business
(selected in an online vote beforehand)
and spend some money
there – perhaps $10 or $20. The
idea is to give the shops a one-day
boost in revenue to keep them
going in tough economic times.
Craig Boutilier, a professor of
computer science, says the idea is
an altruistic version of a phenomenon
called tuangou, which originated
in China. There, people would
arrive en masse at a store to haggle
for a better price on a particular
item. Boutilier is now working with
PhD student Tyler Lu on an online
version of bargain hunting that’s
consumer-driven – unlike Groupon,
in which vendors decide the deal.
illustration: Isabel Foo
Autumn 2012 21

Leading Edge
There are no reliable estimates of the number of private
security cameras in Canada. In the U.K., estimates range from
1.9 million to 4.2 million – one for every 15 to 33 citizens
prototype
Watchful Eyes
Security cameras are
everywhere. A new app
invites Torontonians to
help map them
the totalitarian future that George Orwell
imagined in 1984 hasn’t come to pass, but video
surveillance – especially by corporations –
has become increasingly commonplace. Visit
the Eaton Centre or any popular shopping
area in Toronto, for example, and chances are
you’ll be caught on camera, and your image
stored – at least temporarily – in computer
memory. What happens to those images Who
sees them and what do they do with them
Recently, Andrew Clement, a professor
in the Faculty of Information, became curious
about these questions. He knew that, under
federal privacy guidelines, organizations that
operate video cameras in public places are
required to post signs indicating who runs the
camera and the purpose of the surveillance,
as well as contact information for members of
the public. But very few of the cameras he
noticed were accompanied by such signs. So
he decided to investigate.
With a colleague and three graduate
students, Clement collected information about 140 video camera installations in the
Toronto area operated mostly by well-known retailers, restaurants and banks. Only
30 per cent of the surveillance operations had any signage, and not one fully complied
with Ottawa’s privacy guidelines. (Clement has offered a $100 reward for anyone
who finds a camera with the appropriate signage.)
What’s more, when researchers requested images of themselves that had been caught
on camera, only a small minority of organizations responded within the 30 days
required by the federal guidelines. Many didn’t respond at all – or were dismissive
of the request. “I felt this called for action,” says Clement.
He soon discovered, however, that the Privacy Commissioner doesn’t have the
power to issue fines. She can order a company to put up a sign or reduce the amount
of time images are saved, but even these measures are open to court challenges.
“The guidelines lack teeth,” says Clement. “Companies ignore them because there
really are no consequences.”
So rather than file complaints, Clement opted for another approach. He is inviting
Torontonians to help create an online map at surveillancerights.ca showing where video
cameras are located in public areas, who operates them, and whether the appropriate
signage is in place. His team has also created a “ticket” that people can download and
hand out to non-compliant organizations and an Android app that allows people to
access the map and file reports about cameras they find as they travel around the city.
In future, Clement hopes to create an “alert” for the app that causes your smartphone
to buzz when you’re near a video camera. While he acknowledges that there are
legitimate reasons for video security, Clement says cameras need to be operated
within “a transparent regime of accountability and oversight,” which, in his view, is
currently absent. “There needs to be public pressure and that comes through greater
visibility and letting people know what their rights are,” he says. – Scott Anderson
To find out more, or contribute to the security camera map of Toronto, visit surveillancerights.ca
Findings
Crab Shell Car Parts
Aaron Guan, a graduate student in
mechanical and industrial engineering,
has won a national automotive
competition – and a $10,000 scholarship
– for his work developing a new
biodegradable material made from
shrimp and crab shells that can replace
petroleum-based plastics used in auto
components.
Shrimp and crab shell fibres, called
chitin nanowhiskers, form the base of
this new material, which would allow
automotive components to meet strict
environmental standards without
compromising vehicle safety. The new
material has a much higher strengthto-weight
ratio than the conventional
plastics used in most automotive
components, and provides higher
mechanical strength without aesthetic
flaws or deformation at lower densities.
Guan worked with Prof. Hani Naguib in
the Smart and Adaptive Polymers Lab.
Rise and Shine
Early birds are happier and healthier
than night owls, according to a new
study by Renee Biss and Lynne Hasher,
of psychology.
Biss and Hasher studied two groups
of adults – an older group mostly over
60 and a younger group under 40.
Both groups filled out questionnaires
about their daily routines, emotional
state and feelings of healthiness. The
older adults, who were far more likely
than the younger adults to consider
themselves morning people, reported
greater positive emotion. Younger
people with a rise and shine disposition
also reported feeling more positive.
Why “morningness” is associated
with greater positivity in all age groups
might be related to the concept of
“social jet lag” – the idea that people
who stay up later for work or play
develop sleep patterns that don’t
mesh well with the typical 9 to 5 cycle
of work or school. The study was published
in the journal Emotion.
22 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
photo: Zmeel Photography/iStockphoto

Leading Edge
Toronto’s Fort York will mark the bicentennial of the Battle of York
next April with a sunrise First Nations ceremony, a commemorative
service at the fort and a military parade
Q&A
Clash of the Britons
Was the War of 1812 actually
a civil war
On June 18, 1812, the U.S. formally declared war against
Great Britain. It was the first and only time our southern
neighbour has taken up arms against Canada (or what would
become Canada). Two hundred years later, Scott Anderson
spoke to Jan Noel, a UTM history prof, about the war’s impact.
A one-minute refresher, please. What was the War of 1812
about One of the main causes of the war was the British
impressment of American sailors. The British claimed that
men who had immigrated to the United States were still
British subjects, and they had begun forcibly recruiting these
former subjects into the Royal Navy to help fight the Napoleonic
wars. There was also a lot of conflict over what the
Americans thought was British encouragement of aboriginal
attacks on American settlers. When the war ended there was
no resounding victor, and no territory changed hands.
Did the war have a lasting impact on the relationship between
Canada and the U.S. Not long after the war ended, there
was a boundary settlement along the 49 th parallel, but apart
from that it’s hard to trace lasting effects. U of T historian
J.M.S. Careless wrote an article around the time of Canada’s
centennial celebrations, in which he affirmed that this war
was the beginning of the American population in Upper Canada
developing a distinct identity. There’s nothing like having
homesteads burned to give people a sense of solidarity.
Did it help shape who we are as Canadians Many people see
the First World War as a crystallizing moment in our history.
Other people look to the creation of national health care in
the 1960s. It’s easier to make an argument for the importance
of these events because they aren’t so far in the past. However,
if the British had lost the War of 1812, Upper Canada probably
would have become an American state.
How has our view of the War of 1812 changed over time Compared
to the two world wars, our records aren’t as complete;
this fuels more imaginative interpretations. In his book
The Civil War of 1812 (Knopf, 2010), for example, Alan Taylor
proposes that Upper Canada was so heavily populated by
American settlers that you could hardly describe this as a
conflict between two separate peoples. There were Irish
immigrants, possibly from the same village in Ireland, fighting
on different sides of the war. There was also a great deal of
cross-border admiration: American generals respected the
discipline of the British generals, while the British foot soldiers
envied American liberties and prosperity. British soldiers
who were taken prisoner would sometimes prefer to stay in
American jails than be sent back across the lines in a prisoner
exchange.
Why is Laura Secord one of the best-known names from the
war Waves of feminism in the 1880s and the 1960s fuelled
curiosity about women’s place in history. Though lost documents
led to confusion about dates, historians eventually
rediscovered two confirmations that Secord’s now-famous
warning led to interception of the Americans by aboriginal
forces friendly to Canada; those warriors proceeded to
win the Battle of Beaver Dams. Cecilia Morgan, a professor
at OISE and author of Heroines and History (UTP 2002),
provides a fascinating account of how Secord’s story became
widely publicized by late-19 th -century amateur historians
who were imperialists and feminists.
Are wars overly emphasized in the study of history I used to
think that when I was a graduate student. But teaching has
made me realize that a whole variety of pathways into the past
are useful. Identifying with past experiences and pondering
their significance deepens our experience of what it is to be
human. History is a dialogue between the past and the present.
We ask questions about the past because of things that we’re
concerned with now.
Read a longer version of this interview at magazine.utoronto.ca.
Photo: Edward Percy Moran/library of congress
Autumn 2012 23

Leading Edge
None of the top 40 songs of 1965 were composed in a
minor key, compared to 22 songs in the top 40 of 2009
Rotary Club
They gave the world the first humanpowered
“ornithopter” – a plane with
bird-like wings that flap. Now, a team
led by engineering alumni Todd Reichert
and Cameron Robertson is seeking to
build a human-powered helicopter.
The team has strong motivation: it hopes
to win the Sikorsky Prize, established in
1980 by the American Helicopter Society.
To win the $250,000 reward – the third
largest monetary prize in aviation history –
a team must fly a human-powered
helicopter for 60 seconds, and reach an
altitude of three metres while remaining
in a 10 metre square.
About 20 groups have tried, but no one
has been able to claim the prize.
The U of T-led team aimed to have their
helicopter built and flying by the end
of August. The most difficult aspect of
the project, Reichert says, is designing
helicopter components that are ultralight
and yet won’t break. “We test every
structure to failure so we’re sure of the
calculations,” he says. “Enormous care
must be taken to make sure that nothing
is sloppily done.” – Liam Mitchell
Sad Songs (Say So Much)
Research finds that pop music
is getting more melancholy – a sign,
perhaps, of the times
Growing up in the 1960s, Glenn Schellenberg spent much of his
weekly allowance on Beatles singles – sweet, boppy numbers
such as “Help” and “She Loves You.” In the ’70s and early ’80s,
the Manitoba native played keyboards with his own rock
band in Toronto, and sometimes with Martha and the Muffins
when they toured. Now a psychology professor at U of T
Mississauga, Schellenberg has applied his academic training
to look back at his youthful passion, arguing that pop songs
have become sadder over the last half-century.
Schellenberg and colleague Christian von Scheve, of the
Freie Universität in Berlin, examined the Billboard Hot 100
List in the last five years of each decade between 1965 and
2009, analyzing each song’s tempo and key. The researchers
determined that songs have grown dramatically slower over
time, and that a radical shift has taken place from major to
minor modes. More than 80 per cent of the most popular
songs on the radio in the ’60s were in the happier major keys,
compared with about 40 per cent of the more recent charttoppers.
Psychological research shows that slower songs in
minor keys tend to elicit more doleful responses.
“There is an element of taste here,” says Schellenberg.
“Increasingly, we tend to view music with negative emotions
as more genuine, and adult pop that is fast and in a major
mode as somewhat childish.” (He gives as examples ABBA’s
“Waterloo” or Aqua’s “Barbie Girl.”) He also guesses there’s
a connection between the worsening economic times in the
West and the increasing melancholy of our songbook. “In
the music, you can see the postwar boom slowly going away.”
In short, there’s this feeling among many coming of age now
that they’ve arrived on the scene, in Neil Young’s evocative
phrase, after the goldrush. – Alec Scott
24 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
photo: Mike Campbell/ckmmphotographic

By Cynthia Macdonald
Illustration by Gavin Potenza
A Shift in Perception
Discoveries in brain science are prompting
new theories about how our senses work – and how they
affect our understanding of the world
When Constantine Caravassilis listens to stringed instruments,
strange things happen. If he hears a chord played in the
low range, his eyes might suddenly flood with colour: “a G,”
he tells me, “is usually orange.” At other times, this type
of sound can cause him to experience sweet or bitter tastes.
Caravassilis, an accomplished composer and doctoral
student at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, has
an unusually strong case of synesthesia – a condition in
which the stimulation of one sensory pathway leads automatically
to the arousal of another.
Synesthesia isn’t unique to musicians, although they may
be disproportionately affected by it. It wasn’t until his second
year at university that Caravassilis learned that several other
composers (such as Claude Debussy and Alexander Scriabin)
shared what he thinks of as “an ability, not a malfunction.
But you wouldn’t describe it as a negative or positive
experience,” he says. “It just is.”
Up until recently, it would have been easy to dismiss
Caravassilis as delusional: after all, creative people are
known for having active imaginations. Now, however, what
synesthetes say they experience is backed up by science.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),
neuroscientists have discovered that there is much more
crosstalk among the senses than we ever imagined before.
It just so happens that Caravassilis’s is much louder
than most.
But if neuroscience is telling us that the most profound
synesthetes truly “see” a colour invisible to most of us, then
what exactly do we mean when we talk about vision Or for
that matter, about taste, hearing, smell and touch
Autumn 2012 27

Professor Mohan Matthen is trying his best to answer this
question. He is currently the principal investigator at the
Network for Sensory Research, an international team of philosophers
headquartered at U of T who believe it is high time
we developed a new conceptual framework for the senses.
It seems natural that philosophers should be leading this
investigation; after all, it was Aristotle who originally conceived
of the five-sense model to which we rigorously cling.
And until the scientific method was developed in the 17 th
century, investigation of the senses belonged to the philosophers
alone. Today, they share the stage with neuroscientists,
psychologists, medical doctors and biologists. And findings
within these fields are reframing philosophical thinking in
fascinating ways.
Matthen himself came to philosophy via the sciences:
his first degree was in physics, and he has also taught the
philosophy of biology. His first exposure to the domain
that would shape his life came when a teacher in his native
India recommended that he read Appearance and Reality
by the British metaphysician F.H. Bradley. On his chatty
blog, Matthen jokes that the book (and his teacher) actually
caused him “much misery”; nonetheless, it spurred him to
study human perception.
Other philosophers around the world have been probing
the mystery of the senses for some time. Barry Smith,
co-director of the University of London’s Centre for the Study
of the Senses, is best known as a specialist in flavour and
smell. Fiona Macpherson, who is the director of the University
of Glasgow’s Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience,
is an expert in the nature of visual experience, including optical
illusions. Matthen has brought these researchers together
– in person, when possible – with like-minded thinkers from
Harvard, M.I.T. and elsewhere. “We want people to communicate,
share each others’ work and get access to faculty
members in other disciplines,” he says. “We’re particularly
interested in multi-sensory integration and how the senses
contribute to knowledge.”
A key question the network wants to address is whether
Aristotle’s model is still relevant. “The traditional five senses
are external, but we’re also interested in the internal senses –
those that have to do with a sense of what your own body
is doing,” Matthen says. These include proprioception
(knowing where your body is in space); nociception (the
feeling of pain); and thermoception (temperature sense),
among others.
Matthen’s colleague Fiona Macpherson points out that
animals have certain senses that we lack. “There are fish
who are sensitive to electric fields. And there’s quite good
evidence that some animals are sensitive to magnetic north,
which we aren’t.” We humans might possess a vomeronasal
organ – which animals famously use to sniff each others’
pheromones – but the jury is still out on whether a human
sense functions this way. So if we no longer have five senses,
then how many do we have
Like a practiced synesthete, I can see Matthen’s head shaking
over the phone. “There’s not much point in counting
them,” he says. “What we’re more interested in is how they
come together.” Barry Smith expands on this. “You could
have more than one sense of smell, because you’ve got the
smelling from the outside in when you take a breath. But
you’re also smelling aromas that enter the sinus cavity from
inside the mouth.”
An explanation: when I attend one of Smith’s talks, he offers
everyone in attendance a jelly bean, and tells us to hold our
nose while chewing. My jelly bean is coconut-flavoured; with
my nose held, I can only perceive that it’s “sweet” (in that
respect, no different in any way from raspberry or chocolate).
The coconut flavour only becomes apparent when I unplug
my nose. Smith’s point is clear: what we call “flavour” is a
blend of tongue-taste and smell. “None of the parts operate
separately anyway,” he says. “So how can we think of them
as parts”
None of the parts operate separately. It’s an idea that
completely upends what we all learned as schoolchildren:
there are five individuated senses, some more cherished than
others. And yet we know from experience how integrated
they all must be. When we have a cold, for example, taste and
smell are equally diminished. And instinctively, we know
that beautifully presented food somehow tastes better.
Sensory fusion is also illustrated by the McGurk effect,
where you watch a mouth forming the sound “ga” while the
sound “ba” is being played. What you will then hear is wrong:
it’s the sound “da,” the midpoint between the two. (There are
several video demonstrations of this effect on YouTube.)
“So the question is, do we partly hear with our eyes” asks
Smith. “And the thought seems to be, yes. You’re fusing hearing
and vision to make some new product. The way we’re
talking about hearing and vision no longer depends on input
from just one sense, and as a result we’ve had to tear up our
old ideas.”
And yet, it’s not as if Aristotle was completely wrong: there
are dividing lines, but where are they On a sunny day in May,
Matthen gathers members of the network at a wine-tasting in
the Niagara region of Ontario. Smith is, among other things,
an oenophile – wine-tasting being a discipline that naturally
combines all the senses at once. “Smell this!” he demands,
proffering a glass of Riesling. “It has notes of diesel and lime.”
This doesn’t sound inviting, and Smith is right: what I inhale
seems nothing less than mildly citric gasoline.
But tasting is a different matter altogether. On drinking the
wine, I perceive it as sweet and floral, its flavour only a distant
cousin to its scent. Smith says this disconnection is common
in the flavour business. He points out the example of Époisses
cheese, which tastes delightful but smells like a “teenager’s
training shoe.” It’s clear that there are separate perceptual
systems operating here. But the war may not be between
smell and taste – instead, it could be one of my smell-senses
rejecting the information from another.
28 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA

It appears that we may have multiple sight senses, too. Take
the remarkable example of Daniel Kish, a Californian who had
his eyes removed as a toddler due to cancer. To navigate the
world, Kish echolocates: he uses vocal clicks to activate a
kind of sonar system more commonly associated with animals
such as bats. A recent study showed that Kish’s method can
help him tell a car from a lamppost, or a flat object from one
that is convex. He can also stand near your car and tell you
how far it is from the curb.
Amazingly, brain scans show that Kish’s visual cortex
lights up when he is “looking” at something, even though he
is echolocating the object instead of seeing it in a traditional
manner. So in one very key sense, Kish has not lost the ability
to see things – just the usual way of doing so.
And yet, as Fiona Macpherson points out, the very words
“visual cortex” might be erroneous; after all, it’s a given that
a person with no eyes cannot see. “This area of the brain is
clearly doing a lot of visual processing – but is it exclusively
visual” she asks. “It might be better to call it a spatial-processing
cortex.”
In any case, “when somebody loses a sense,” says Matthen,
“they often manage to get the same information in a different
way. That’s of vital interest to us.”
Matthen points out that whether disabled or not, all human
beings use their senses in concert all the time, though they
may not be conscious of it. When one sense fails or feels
untrustworthy, we automatically let another take over. “If
you don’t trust the colour of something, you might turn it
over, use motion to manipulate the object and learn more
about it,” he says. “Vision can make mistakes, but generally
by interacting with an object in a multi-sensory way we can
check those mistakes”.
So are we all synesthetic Fiona Macpherson believes that
a case such as that of Caravassilis – true synesthesia – is
relatively rare. But she thinks we all experience cross-modal
phenomena. Take the “Bouba-Kiki” experiment of 2001, in
which people were shown two pictorial figures – one
rounded, the other angular. Ninety-five per cent of participants
assigned the name “kiki” to the angular figure and
“bouba” to the rounded one, proving a link between visual
and auditory faculties in the brain. Macpherson says we
frequently make other synesthesia-like associations, too.
“Suppose I gave you a blank piece of paper and a pen, and I
asked you to draw how the days of the week were related to
each other,” she says. “How would you do it”
I tell her that it’s nonsense to think the days of the week
are spatially related. But in her mind, they are. “I would draw
a circle that goes anticlockwise, with Saturday and Sunday at
the top,” she says. I tell her that strikes me as frankly weird –
but she returns the favour when I tell her the appearance of
sloppily printed letters can sometimes make the skin on my
thumbs feel itchy.
“One of the nice things about these studies,” she says, “is
that we’re realizing the way human beings think about things
is really idiosyncratic. What goes on in our heads is so unique,
because of the rich, complex people that we are.”
What is a “sense,” anyway As a verb, it means to grasp, or feel,
or understand. As a noun, it has traditionally referred to a
bodily faculty that enables us to do these things.
And yet, even those simple definitions are currently up for
review. It might even be possible to sense something without
being aware of it. “There is emotional communication
through chemical signalling,” says Smith, noting that
researchers at the Weizmann Institute in Israel last year
found evidence that chemical signals from a woman’s tears
lower men’s sexual interest, even though tears give off no
discernible odour.
Selling to the Senses
Companies appeal to hearing, taste and
sight to affect consumer perception
Charles Spence, a scientific advisor to the Network
for Sensory Research, is an experimental
psychologist at the University of Oxford. He’s
also an expert on how consumers sensorily
experience new products. At first glance,
Spence seems something of an academic
enfant terrible, both for his status as a marketing
maven and for the sometimes bizarre
nature of his research. One of his sense experiments
even won him the Ig Nobel Prize (a parody
of the Nobel): he managed to prove that
Pringle’s potato chips taste fresher to people
when you amplify the sound of their crunching.
Companies have long employed the research
of people such as Spence. But until recently,
much received wisdom in this area has been
visual. Using Carl Jung’s dictum that “colours
are the mother tongue of the subconscious,”
marketers well know that a green logo (Starbucks)
promotes products that are earthy and
homelike; a yellow one (McDonald’s) playful
and fun; and a blue one (American Express)
reassuring and solid.
Now, we may be transitioning from an age of
uni-sensory to multi-sensory – or “crossmodal”
– marketing. One example is “Sounds
of the Sea,” an experimental restaurant dish
Spence recently helped develop in collaboration
with Heston Blumenthal, the iconoclastic
chef of Britain’s Fat Duck restaurant. The dish
includes edible “sand” made of tapioca, breadcrumbs
and miso oil, along with sashimi and
foam made from seaweed stock. Diners are
served an iPod along with their meal, which
plays ocean sounds such as cawing gulls and
crashing waves. This carnival of oceanic sensory
inputs is said to have a striking effect: Blumenthal
claims he’s had “diners in tears, overcome
with emotion.”
Spence also takes his cross-modal message
on the road, and has done so with Barry Smith.
“We were at a big marketing event in Colombia
about six months ago, and we had about 300
of their leading companies there,” Smith says.
“Marketing people now have to look at the
whole mosaic of results in the neurosciences,
and figure out how to apply them properly.”
Some of these results show that the senses
are connected in strange ways indeed. “There
are now smells in shampoo that actually make
your hair feel softer,” Smith says. “And if you
want to reduce the fat content in yogurt, you
can add an aroma that will leave it tasting just
as creamy.” – Cynthia Macdonald
Autumn 2012 29

“We’ve given up the idea that the
world is composed of four elements.
Why do we hold on to Aristotle’s view
that there are just five senses”
Advances in science are not only doing away with how we
view the senses, but how we view philosophy itself. Since
the invention of the scientific method, a chasm has opened
between the two disciplines. And unless philosophy works
to keep up, a good deal of what we’ve traditionally thought
risks invalidation.
“When philosophers start telling you how it is, I start to
get worried,” says Smith. “Especially if they’re talking about
the mind, or language or emotions, and they don’t look at the
relevant recent science on these topics.” He points out that
many outmoded philosophical views are vital links in a
chain that is still snaking through history towards the truth.
But if these views are no longer tenable, we should no longer
teach them as gospel.
“We’ve given up the idea that the world is composed of
four elements. Why do we hold on to Artistotle’s view that
there are just five senses” Smith asks. “Somehow this is
a bit of folk ideology that still remains.”
Neuroscience has revolutionized philosophy. Technology
such as fMRI offers a picture of the self that seems to contradict
the fragile and unreliable accounts of it we like to give
each other.
It may seem a broad statement, but Macpherson reminds
me how fundamental these questions are to philosophers.
“One of the big philosophical questions that everybody
knows is, how do I know that the world around me really
exists, and is as I take it to be That question arose because
people thought: well, maybe I’m just hallucinating it all.
Maybe I’m in the Matrix, and sentient machines are tampering
with my brain.”
So if science is discrediting much of what philosophers
used to think about the nature of perception, why should
philosophers participate in this debate at all Matthen says
that the examination of subjective experience – how it feels
to be human, regardless of what any lab test might tell us –
is still very much the province of philosophers, and has
always been a significant area of study. Our preference for
viewing the world unscientifically may be annoying and
frustrating. But it’s also key to understanding who we are.
Smith agrees. “We all know the sun isn’t really moving,
but we still talk about it ‘setting.’ How do we connect the
lived experience, the way things seem to us, with what’s
really going on It’s the job of the philosopher to do that.”
“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would
appear to man as it is, infinite.” Since William Blake wrote
that over 200 years ago, many (most famously, the writer
Aldous Huxley) have tried to alter their perceptual experience
with drugs. But instead of stumbling through a drugged haze,
some modern-day Huxleys are now tweaking their senses
with different kinds of substances.
One of these is miraculin, a derivative of a west African
berry that strips lemons of their acidity and makes them
taste as sweet as peaches. Miraculin has more serious uses
too. People undergoing chemotherapy – who often find that
food tastes unpleasantly metallic – can use it to positively
alter the flavour of what they eat.
Flavourless jelly beans, sweet lemons and wine that smells
like gasoline: it’s not hard to believe Smith when he says that
sensory research is “a lot of fun.” Those attracted to it are
quirky sorts, preoccupied with questions that wouldn’t trouble
most of us. “One of the things that’s really nice about this
work,” says Matthen, “is that everything you do, even if it’s
terribly mundane, suddenly takes on more meaning. You
might notice that when you’re driving, you don’t have to see
the corners of your car to know where they are. The car
responds to your own movements and when it does that, it
becomes integrated into your own bodily sense.”
Being most concerned with questions of taste, scent
and flavour, Smith admits to having acquired an overdeveloped
sense of smell. “I can’t turn it off!” he laughs. “I walk
into rooms and I smell people, or the rooms themselves;
when people walk by I’m noticing their different sensory
fingerprints.”
Isn’t that unpleasant Not at all, he says. “You think: all
of this was going on, and I’ve been missing it. To put yourself
back in touch with your animal nature, your senses, your
contact with the environment is wonderful. You feel healthier,
more complete.”
Back in Toronto, Constantine Caravassilis is working on
something very special to him: a huge, colour-coded musical
project, which he plans to finish in two or three years.
“Instead of preludes and fugues in D major or C minor, we’ll
have preludes and fugues in green or orange,” he says.
He uses software that converts his piano’s sounds to string
sounds, and shifts them into a lower range. When that happens,
his synesthesia kicks in and his mind erupts in colour,
tastes and emotions. “With the part I’m working on now,
I’m trying to stick with beige,” he says. “But it’s very difficult.
I’ll spend days on just three bars, and then all of a sudden
my fugue subject wants to turn red! So that’s the challenge.
I have to find a way to keep it going . . . in the same colour.”
Cynthia Macdonald (BA 1986 St. Michael’s) is a writer in Toronto.
30 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA

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By Patchen Barss
Photography by Chris Thomaidis
Frugal Thinking
How do you bring basic sanitation to two billion
people in low-income countries Inventing a toilet
that works for pennies a day is a start
The average North American home could barely function as
a residence if it lost its connections to the outside world.
Wires, cables and electromagnetic radiation pierce the walls
to convey electricity, television, telephone, radio and the
Internet. Out-of-sight pipes bring in gas and running water.
Even that most humble household fixture, the toilet, is
part of a network of water mains, grinder pumps and lift
stations that stretches from a reservoir at one end to a sewage
treatment plant at the other.
To most of us, a home is less like a castle and more like an
organ pulsing in a vast circulatory system of utilities and
information. This connectedness to “the grid” is so integral
to the comforts of the developed world that it would seem
impossible for low-income nations to ever attain a western
standard of living without first making huge investments in
costly infrastructure.
However, a new movement is challenging this assumption.
At U of T and elsewhere, an informal alliance of engineers,
designers, marketers and political scientists have become
champions of a concept known as “frugal innovation.” This
cross-disciplinary community of researchers seeks to develop
simple, affordable technologies that use environmentally
sustainable power sources and materials. Principles such as
reducing, reusing and recycling that are often treated as
remedial add-ons to North American lifestyles are built into
frugal innovation from the beginning. The aim is to deliver
western-style products and services in developing nations
without western-style expense and resource usage.
As unassuming – or unappealing – as it might seem, the
toilet has become a major focus of this new form of innovation.
In North America, toilets account for nearly 40 per cent
of a home’s water use, and even low-flow models use more
Autumn 2012 33

than six litres per flush. This excessive use of water – let
alone the construction of a massive sewage system to
service such home fixtures – is unimaginable in many parts
of the world.
So while many philanthropic efforts in low-income countries
aim to provide sanitary toilets to prevent disease and improve
the health of billions of people, using developed-world technology
to do so would be economically and environmentally
unsound. That’s why the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
in July 2011, issued a challenge to engineers to “reinvent the
toilet.” Through its Centre for Global Engineering, U of T
is fielding one of the eight teams from around the world who
were invited to take up the Gates’ call.
Yu-Ling Cheng, the centre’s director, prefers the term
“appropriate” to “frugal” when talking about innovation. She
is concerned about the reinvented toilet’s affordability, but
also believes that a successful design must draw on locally
available materials and expertise for operation, maintenance
and repairs. In addition, she says the design process must
include consultations with the intended users to ensure the
solution is one they want and will actually adopt. This process
demands collaboration from start to finish, fresh thinking
and a lot of work. If it’s successful, though, the impact could
be extraordinary.
“I was attracted to this project because it’s a chance to
help improve the lives of billions of people in need of better
sanitation,” says Zachary Fishman, a research associate at
the Centre for Global Engineering who is working on the
science, engineering and design of U of T’s entry in the Gates
challenge. He acknowledges that redesigning the toilet is not
a particularly glamorous task, but he sees beyond the fixture
itself to the impact it could have on the world.
A standard toilet, for instance, uses nearly 19 litres of water
per flush. To put that in perspective, a single flush requires
more water than a person living in poverty in a developing
nation such as Rwanda or Cambodia typically uses in an entire
day – for bathing, drinking, cooking and everything else. The
average Canadian uses close to 350 litres in a day.
Toronto’s sewage system, with nearly 6,000 kilometres of
water mains, is inarguably a triumph of engineering. But it
is simply impossible to reproduce it for the 2.6 billion South
Asians, sub-Saharan Africans and others who currently lack
access to basic sanitation. Yet by making reliable, sanitary
toilets available throughout the world, billions of lives could
be vastly improved – and sometimes saved. About 1.5 million
children die each year from diarrheal diseases that could
be avoided through better sanitation and hygiene. Millions
more become too sick to attend school.
The Gates Foundation challenge to Reinvent the Toilet awarded third prize and US$40,000 to U of T's team from the Centre for Global Engineering, from left:
Prof. Elizabeth Edwards, team leader Prof. Yu-Ling Cheng, Samuel Melamed, Prof. Mark Kortschot, Tiffany Jung, Meagan Webb and Zachary Fishman
34 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA

The criteria for the Gates Foundation challenge focused on
both affordability and appropriateness. Teams had to design
a safe, hygienic toilet that would work for five cents per person
per day and operate off the grid and without connection to a
sewer. The U of T group wanted its design to be just as suitable
for densely populated regions as for rural areas. And they
knew their toilet had to be able to filter, separate, dry and
disinfect human waste in a wide variety of climates, cultures
and circumstances. All eight teams that were invited to
participate – along with some 30 others – presented prototypes
at the Gates Foundation’s campus in Seattle in August. U of T’s
entry placed third, earning the team a US$40,000 prize. It is
expected that the U of T team will receive additional funding
for a second phase to refine and test their invention, but
in mid-August the details for how this will proceed had yet to
be confirmed.
In devising their winning approach, members of U of T’s
team knew they would not be able to rely on access to
water or specialized component parts. And they considered
all existing off-the-grid toilet concepts inappropriate for
the challenge. Composting is too slow to deal with high usage.
Existing incineration systems demand too much power.
And high-tech tools for dealing with organic waste, such as
membrane filters and chemical composting accelerants, are
too expensive and too complicated.
The team looked instead to sand. With their approach,
when someone uses the toilet, liquids and solids are separated
and dealt with individually. The solids are partially dried
and then sanitized through a steady, low-energy smouldering
process rather than energy-intensive incineration. Once
the smouldering is started, it is self-sustaining as long as the
toilet is in regular use.
The liquid side of the operation is more complicated.
Because gastrointestinal bugs are so common, liquid waste
often contains bits of fecal matter that must be further
separated. The engineers found that sand makes a serviceable
filter. Once urine and diarrhea pass through the sand, the
liquid can be neutralized via solar-powered ultraviolet lights.
Of course, the sand itself becomes clogged and contaminated,
and must be cleaned. This led to an elegant solution:
sand also happens to provide ideal airflow for the smouldering
process. Sand dirtied through filtering is cleansed through
smouldering, meaning the same sand can be used repeatedly,
moving back and forth from one function to the other.
Not only is sand inexpensive, but it’s also widely available
around the world, allowing for easy local maintenance.
Once the solid waste has been smouldered, the ash can be
discarded safely.
Not all parts of the team’s toilet can be found in nature.
The separation system requires a moving belt that separates
solids from liquid, and spreads the wet solids so they dry
more quickly. The team has analyzed every component,
seeking inexpensive, common technologies that are familiar
to people in low-income countries. As Cheng emphasizes,
Dilip
Soman
“Jugaad is one of
those untranslatable
Hindi words,
but it essentially
refers to using the
things you have
at hand to come up
with solutions.”
the toilet must rely not only on locally available materials,
but also on local knowledge for installation and repair.
“At the moment, we’re using hardware-store sprockets, but
we’re planning to adapt it to use bicycle sprockets,” says
Fishman. “We’re currently using commercially available belt
material. But we’re planning for that to be lower-cost plastic
or something that could be produced locally.”
Cheng is aware that even the best design is useless if people
don’t adopt it; reinventing the toilet isn’t merely a matter
of, “If we build it, they will go.” Early in the project, the team
conducted field research in Bangladesh. Even simple information
such as the preference for squat toilets over western
sit-down models, or the need for women to have a private
place to change their clothes before and after using the facilities,
prompted the team to refine their prototype.
The consultations yielded a spin-off benefit as well: a second,
simpler, design project. “I came across a group of women
talking about parents getting old or sick and being unable to
use squat toilets – they would sometimes relieve themselves
anywhere and these women would have to clean it up,”
says Cheng. So she assigned students in one of her courses to
develop ‘squatting assistance technology.’
In a matter of weeks, the students came up with a freestanding
frame that’s light enough to be positioned over
a squat loo when needed, and easily moved aside when not.
It is sturdy enough to allow users to support themselves
on it with their arms. “It’s a really neat design,” says Cheng.
The product is aimed at elderly, middle-class Bangladeshis,
but also pregnant women and people with illnesses and
disabilities.
Such a project hints at the much wider range of issues
around the world that might be addressed through frugal
innovation.
Dilip Soman, a professor with the Rotman School of
Management and the director of the India Innovation Institute,
is one of Cheng’s collaborators in a broader effort to study lowcost
innovation and the conditions that enable it to succeed.
India has become a centre of innovation for everything from
biotech to manufacturing, and Soman’s institute supports
research on those success stories, situating them in a global
context. He concurs that making a product inexpensive
is often necessary but rarely sufficient to gain purchase in
photo: John Hryniuk
Autumn 2012 35

In U of T's toilet prototype, liquids and solids are separated and dealt with individually. The solids are partially dried and then sanitized through a low-energy
smouldering process rather than energy-intensive incineration. Once the smouldering is started, it is self-sustaining as long as the toilet is in regular use.
Frugal Fortification
A U of T nutritional scientist has developed a low-cost product
to fight vitamin and mineral deficiency in developing countries
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies cause widespread illness and early
death in many developing nations. Anemia, for instance, usually caused
by iron deficiency, is the world’s second-leading cause of disability,
affecting just under half of preschool children and more than half of
pregnant women in low-income countries.
In Canada, staple foods and children’s cereals are commercially fortified
with iron and other essential vitamins and minerals. It’s an effective
remedy – North American malnutrition prevalence is a fraction of that of
developing nations. But it’s both expensive and unsuitable for areas where
food comes straight from the field rather than through a factory.
Stanley Zlotkin, a professor of nutritional sciences and pediatrics,
has spent more than a decade championing an innovative – and frugal –
alternative: home fortification.
His product, called “Sprinkles,” is a sachet of powder containing
enough micronutrients for one child for one day. The powder costs two
to three cents per packet to produce, and when mixed in with a meal,
helps prevent anemia, rickets, and other conditions brought on through
malnutrition.
Affordability was just one of several factors Zlotkin considered when
developing the product. “The other important components are
convenience, no requirement for users to be literate, and ability to use
traditional local infant food,” he says. “Sprinkles can be added to any
semi-solid food, without changing the taste, texture, colour or smell.”
To arrive at this seemingly simple solution, Zlotkin spent years
researching, experimenting and then promoting his product. His work
has involved everything from learning how to encase nutrients in
soy to keep them from affecting the food to finding partners who could
produce and distribute Sprinkles all over the world.
Zlotkin’s innovative sachets have reached about 15 million children,
and the Sprinkles Global Health Initiative has active collaborations in
more than a dozen countries, from Ghana to Guyana.
– Patchen Barss
36 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
photo: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/Michael Hanson

markets around the world. “One of the things we study is
design deployment – getting people to use the thing,” he says.
“Lots of great ideas fall by the wayside if you don’t think about
how to get people to use them.”
Generally, frugal innovation focuses on re-engineering
existing products rather than developing new ones. U of T–
related examples range from tablet computers that cost less
than $100, to transforming how hospitals provide medical
oxygen to patients, to low-cost artificial limbs. Soman echoes
many of his colleagues when he talks about the potential
for industrialized countries to learn from low-cost products,
services and business practices devised in developing nations.
And India, in particular, he says, offers models that might
find traction here in Canada. “As a behavioural psychologist,
I’m aware that there’s a different mindset in India, something
called jugaad,” he says. “Jugaad is one of those untranslatable
Hindi words, but it essentially refers to using the things you
have at hand to come up with solutions.”
He cites the example of the Nano, the least expensive factoryproduced
car in the world. Tata, the Indian manufacturer
that created it, stripped away standard features such as power
steering, airbags and one of the windshield wipers. “You
start to look at things you don’t really need,” says Soman.
“Traffic moves so slowly, the airbags would never deploy, and
the car is so small you wouldn’t want them to.” The Nano’s
merit is not just its low price tag (about $3,000), but its contextual
suitability. “It’s all about thinking about the project
being embedded in a larger environment. It is a psychological
process more than a process of engineering. With the right
mindset, you’re optimizing a different problem. You’re not
trying to find a perfect solution; you’re trying to find something
that works.”
Soman sees parallels between India and Canada that could
facilitate frugal innovations moving from there to here. “One
of the big health-care challenges in India is that population
is distributed sparsely in some places and densely in others,”
he says. Like Canadians, Indians contend with limited
medical resources in rural areas, and the question of when to
transport patients to urban centres for tests and treatments.
India has become a leader in using mobile technology to
supplement health care.
“Patients might see a doctor just once a year, so people
have developed mobile-phone-based reminder systems,
and use these devices to store medical records,” says Soman.
“There are smartphone apps that ask patients a bunch of
questions and then advise them whether to take a trip to the
doctor. Those are all things we could use here. That would be
fantastic.”
Even an off-the-grid toilet may find a place in North
American society. Campsites and isolated northern communities
would likely be the first beneficiaries, but such
toilets may one day also find their way into even the most
deeply grid-dependent household. “There’s no reason for the
developed world not to adopt the technologies as well,” Cheng
says. “They don’t require expensive infrastructure. But our
‘infrastructure inertia’ and ‘mindset inertia’ sometimes allow
countries such as India to leapfrog ahead of us.”
Of course, local context will always require adjustment –
a frugal solution that works in one region of India might not
work elsewhere in the country, let alone in Tanzania, rural
China or Canada. That is why a multidisciplinary, flexible
approach to such challenges is the most promising avenue to
finding solutions that can be adapted to many cultures and
climates, and can change the lives of a diversity of people.
All those pipes and wires – the mesh that holds together
our cities and our societies – are deeply ingrained in our sense
of how life is supposed to work. We’re comfortable being
on the grid, and we’re used to the complexity and expense of
standard engineering solutions. Western society might only
really embrace frugal innovation should the cost – economic
or environmental – become so great that there is little other
choice.
Patchen Barss is a Toronto-based journalist and author specializing in science,
technology, research and culture.
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Autumn 2012 37

ExplorE thE World With thE
UnivErsity of toronto in 2013
We are pleased to present an exciting range of destinations
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& Chile
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q italy’s lake district
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q Jewels of Antiquity
q Ancient Kingdoms of China
q dalmatian Coast
q Baltic sea
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q England’s lake district
q Waterways of russia
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GreaT adVenTures
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caribbean sea
Jan 4 – 16
from $2995 Us + air
Pearls of southeast asia
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Malaysia, indonesia)
Jan 12 – 29
from $4245 Us + air
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polynesia)
Jan 16 – 28
from $3117 Us incl. air
caribbean discovery
Feb 12 – 22
from $2097 Us incl. air
israel
Feb 16 – 28
$4195 Us + air
india: rajasthan
exploration
mar 1 – 14
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mar 1 – 20
$12,888 incl. air
samba rhythms
(Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil)
mar 5 – 18
from $3733 Us incl. air
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argentina & chile
mar 19 – 31
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africa (south Africa,
Zimbabwe)
mar 26 – apr 9
from $6995 Us + air
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belgium
apr 18 – 26
from $3160 Us + air
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Greece, Croatia)
apr 27 – may 5
from $1799 Us incl. air
italy’s lake district
may 14 – 22
$2995 Us + air
Village life in dordogne
(france)
may 16 – 24
$3270 Us + air
Jewels of antiquity (france,
italy, Greece, Croatia)
may 28 – Jun 12
from $4795 Us + air
ancient Kingdoms of china
Jun 5 – 19
from $4200 Us + air
dalmatian coast (italy,
Croatia, Montenegro,
Bosnia-herzegovina)
Jun 20 – 28
from $4100 Us + air
baltic sea (sweden,
finland, russia, Estonia,
latvia, poland, denmark,
norway)
Jun 21 – Jul 2
from $7795 Us + air
alaska (UsA)
Jun 27 – Jul 4
from $4520 Us incl. air
ireland
Jul 1 – 9
$2995 Us + air
england’s lake district
Jul 4 – 12
$2995 Us + air
waterways of russia
aug 2 – 12
from $4095 Us + air
black sea odyssey (turkey,
Georgia, russia, Ukraine,
Bulgaria)
aug 29 – sep 12
from $3995 Us + air
historic reflections (spain,
france, italy, turkey,
Greece)
sep 5 –16
from $3999 Us incl. air
road to mandalay
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sep 7 – 27
Approx. $9000 incl. air
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danube (poland, Czech
republic, Germany,
Austria, slovakia, hungary)
sep 18 – 30
from $4095 Us + air
namibia
sep 23 – oct 7
$6295 + air
Grand Journey around
the world (Japan, China,
thailand, UAE, Egypt,
Jordan, Germany)
sep 28 – oct 23
$38,805 Us incl. business
class air
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Provence (france)
sep 28 – oct 27
from $5495 Us + air
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oct 4 – 12
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amalfi coast (italy)
oct 8 – 16
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sri lanka
nov 15 – dec 1
$8988 incl. air
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dec 8 – 18
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adVenTures
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Jun 6 – 14
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Passage
aug 24 – sep 6
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aug 29 – sep 5
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Prague (Czech republic)
Jun 17 – 25
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barcelona & san sebastian
(spain)
sep 22 – oct 1
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build a school in Kenya
oct 19 – 30
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By John Lorinc
Photography by Brent Lewin
The Sage of Bay Street
David Rosenberg warned of a financial crisis
few others saw coming. So why, amid
ongoing global turmoil, is Bay Street’s most noted
pessimist ready to change his tune
When David Rosenberg, Bay Street’s best known pessimist,
talks about the events leading up to the 2008 financial crisis,
which he does frequently, he likes to cite a famous aphorism
by Herbert Stein, one of the great pragmatists of 20 th century
economics. “If something cannot go on forever,” said Stein, a
former presidential adviser, “it will stop.”
This line certainly has more gravitas than “I told you so.”
But for Rosenberg – the chief economist and strategist at the
boutique wealth management firm Gluskin Sheff and Associates
– they amount to the same thing. In early 2005, as chief
economist for Merrill Lynch on Wall Street, Rosenberg was
one of a few lonely voices who warned that a housing bubble
in the U.S. fueled by an abundance of easy credit was going
to pop. Scanning the precipitous rise in home values, Rosenberg
reasoned that a reversal was coming due.
As he told Barron’s in March of that year, the seemingly
unstoppable surge in residential real estate prices had “not
been due to income generation, per se, but rather due to
loose financial-market conditions and an increasing level of
exuberance.” The fact that the bubble hasn’t yet burst
doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, he said, channelling Stein.
“Bubbles and baths usually go together.”
The U.S. economy was roaring, though, so few listened.
For Rosenberg, who was working in a prominent position
at an investment bank that was earning billions of dollars by
selling securities based on dodgy mortgages, it was an especially
courageous call. (In the wake of the collapse of those
securities, Merrill Lynch’s CEO left in disgrace and the firm
paid hundreds of millions to settle shareholder lawsuits over
its role in the financial crisis.) “As long as you had a pulse,
Autumn 2012 41

you were deemed creditworthy,” Rosenberg recalls. “I lived
this whole crazy bubble. I was a Canadian and Canadians
don’t live this way for the most part. But in America, if I went
around talking to clients circa 2005 and 2006 and mentioned
the words ‘housing bubble,’ I might as well have looked them
in the face and called their kid ugly, because that’s the
response that I got. It was all about the democratization of
housing and the democratization of credit. I used to take
around this chart [showing the ratio] of debt to disposable
income. It looked absolutely crazy, like an Internet stock [in
the late 1990s].”
For all its analytical rigour, economic forecasting is still
about trying to predict the future. Those who make the right
call at the right moment attain a sage-like status, and subsequently
command a great deal of attention. In the wake of
2008, Rosenberg, who has a master’s degree in economics
from U of T, has become one of North America’s most
sought-after forecasters. His “Breakfast with Dave” economic
briefing notes – emailed daily to Gluskin Sheff’s clients –
and ubiquitous media commentaries are now a staple of the
raging economic debates about the continuing fallout from
a financial collapse that may yet rival the Great Depression
in depth and tenacity.
“I don’t think there is any [Canadian] economist who is
followed as much as David,” observes Financial Post economics
reporter David Pett. “The name resonates outside CEO
circles and the investing world. I couldn’t say that about any
other economist in Canada.” Bill Robson, the president of the
C.D. Howe Institute, agrees: “His opinions are news in their
own right. That’s how influential he is.”
Indeed, Rosenberg belongs to a new generation of globally
prominent economic seers – Nouriel Roubini, a New York
University economist renowned for his pessimism, foremost
among them, but also such figures as Jeff Rubin, CIBC World
Markets’ former chief economist; Niall Ferguson, the Harvard
economic historian; and Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel
Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. This group has turned
its attention to epic problems that eclipse the day-to-day
fluctuations of the business cycle: sustainability, income
inequality and the long-term implications of globalization.
Most of these tea-leaf readers argue that the cup is half-empty.
For Rosenberg, the big theme is the staggering and unprecedented
amount of “deleveraging” that is required of many
Western governments in the wake of a Gilded Age-like period
that will long be remembered for its addiction to cheap credit.
As Robson says, “He’s concerned about the right things and
the important things.”
Although he may lack Roubini’s brooding mien, which at
times borders on shtick, Rosenberg understands a thing
or two about showmanship. In a Gluskin Sheff meeting room
with a stunning view of Toronto, Rosenberg offers a telescoped
version of his CV – raised in Ottawa, economics at
U of T, two short public sector stints – that culminates in a
punch line with, well, punch. “My career really started on
October 19, 1987,” he says, noting that his first day in Scotiabank’s
economics shop coincided with Black Monday. “People
ask me why I have this dark cloud wherever I go. Well, you
start your career on Bay Street on the day of a 25 per cent
collapse in the stock market and see how that affects the rest
of your life.”
Truth is, he didn’t take quickly to “the dismal science.”
In high school, he enrolled in a Grade 11 economics course.
“I dropped it very quickly when I came home one day and
told my dad, ‘Today, we assumed no government.’ I don’t
think he stopped laughing for a week. I questioned the entire
relevance of taking economics.”
Starting at U of T in 1979, he planned to do a commerce
degree, but balancing the books didn’t come naturally.
Rosenberg picked up a macroeconomics night course taught
by a former public sector economist. Instead of the usual
complement of undergrads, the classroom was filled with
entrepreneurs and business people, and he found those
grounded discussions intensely stimulating because they
encompassed history, sociology and human behaviour.
Rosenberg fell in love with the discipline “even though we
were still assuming no government,” as he jokes.
James Pesando, a U of T economics professor who taught
Rosenberg, recalls him as a lively, engaged student always
eager to parry ideas about economics. “What I do remember
about David was that he had a very extroverted personality,”
says Pesando. “You had the impression that he wanted to
learn. His success is driven by an extraordinary work ethic.”
Rosenberg spent 13 years at Scotiabank and BMO Nesbitt
Burns, finally landing at Merrill Lynch Canada as chief economist
and strategist in 2000. Two years later, the New York
head office of the legendary investment bank came calling,
and so Rosenberg began a seven-year stint on Wall Street
that would catapult him into the public eye.
Rosenberg came back to Canada in 2009, having been
lured to join Gluskin Sheff, whose principals cannily realized
they could put their celebrity economist out in the store
window as a way of attracting clients. “Many economists
take themselves very seriously and speak in a very eloquent
language,” says Ira Gluskin. “David is able to speak to all of
our clients regardless of their ability to understand high-tone
economic comments. He is definitely not a snob.” Neither
is Gluskin. When Rosenberg arrived, the firm gleefully promoted
their new economist’s “crystal balls.”
Rosenberg says the switch – from the “sell side” to the
“buy side” – has been a revelation. At Merrill, he dealt
mainly with internal sales people flogging the investment
bank’s securities. At Gluskin, he has a desk right out on the
trading floor with the portfolio managers, who, Rosenberg
notes, spend their days assessing the probable risks and
rewards of the investment choices they make on behalf of
investors. “This is something a lot of economists on the
sell side don’t see.”
42 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA

Rosenberg believes he has spotted something new
on the economic horizon – a meta cycle that was trending up
for decades and is now tumbling messily downwards.
In practical terms, Rosenberg’s forecasts have produced
a tidy windfall for the firm’s clients: “Many people think that
David is very negative all of the time,” says Gluskin. “He
would argue, and I would agree with him, that this is not
true. He has been very positive on bonds from the day that
he came here and this has proven to be a brilliant decision.”
Still, Rosenberg’s hard-headed philosophy can be a tough
sell, even internally. “David is controversial because some
of our marketing people would argue that it is difficult to
get people to be enthusiastic when he sounds so negative,”
Gluskin continues. “I would argue that they should listen
more closely to his message.”
At a higher analytical level, Rosenberg has pushed Gluskin’s
portfolio managers to start thinking about global markets
in a somewhat radical way. In his view, what’s happening now
bears little resemblance to the standard sine-wave business
cycle – inflation, rising interest rates, flagging demand, excess
inventories, falling prices, and so on – that all economics
students learn about in first year.
“We’ve had about 10 of these in the post-World War Two
period and that’s what we got taught in school,” he says.
“What’s different is that this recession was not driven by any
of those things.” Rosenberg believes he has spotted something
new on the economic horizon – a kind of meta cycle
that was trending up for decades and is now tumbling
messily downwards.
“What we’re living through is a contraction cycle and
deleveraging period of historical proportions because the
movie is running backwards,” he says. “And along with that,
is an unprecedented destruction of wealth in the world’s
largest economy. The impacts this will have on savings, on
spending growth and on inflation are going to linger for a
long period of time. We’ve papered over a lot of these problems
with fiscal policy and now we’ve reached the end of
the road.” With huge deficits and central bank rates set
almost to zero, governments have run out of ways to stimulate
their economies.
While Canada, with its relatively clean balance sheet and
a heavily regulated banking sector, ducked the mayhem that
continues to afflict U.S. and European lenders, Rosenberg
warns that the country’s economy is still exposed to what he
calls “the cross-currents of global investor sentiment.”
“Canada, in some respects, is the prettiest girl in the ugly
contest. But that doesn’t mean we’re not vulnerable to these
external events, as [Bank of Canada governor] Mark Carney
has made abundantly clear.”
Early this summer, Rosenberg made a somewhat daring prediction
about his own predictions, hinting (to the surprise of
his many fans) that he may soon feel upbeat about our neighbour
to the south.
Don’t be surprised, he told The Financial Post, if his signature
bearishness turns into something a bit more optimistic
by “Thanksgiving,” by which he meant the culmination of
the American presidential race and the possibility of a Mitt
Romney victory. “The future is brighter than you think,”
opined Rosenberg. “I’m so excited I just can’t hide it. But for
now I’m keeping the powder dry.”
Just weeks later, however, Rosenberg’s unexpectedly
sunny disposition had given way to a more familiar sense of
foreboding. In one of his well-read “Breakfast with Dave”
notes, he itemized no fewer than 11 reasons for Americans
(and therefore everyone else) to feel queasy about the U.S.
labour market. Dismissing the “alleged” post-2009 recovery,
Rosenberg parsed the June jobs numbers and concluded
pointedly that food stamp use had risen by a third since the
recession ended.
Nouriel Roubini, meanwhile, has declared that the looming
tempest of 2013 – featuring a catastrophic implosion of
the euro zone and a double-dip recession – will make the
financial crisis seem like a light rain shower. When I asked
Rosenberg whether he was still feeling moderately bullish
about the prospects for the U.S., he replied that he doesn’t let
“blips” – Roubini’s “perfect storm” forecasts among them –
influence his long-term views. And, he added, “I never said I
was bullish. I said there are certainly events that could push
me in that direction. That’s more than a subtle difference.”
While Rosenberg insists that, as an economist, he isn’t in
the business of forecasting politics, the subject is never far
from his mind, and never more so than with this fall’s U.S.
election. Like many observers, he believes the United States,
with its uncontrolled deficits and increasingly stagnant
economy, has arrived at a day of reckoning, not unlike 1980,
when Ronald Reagan was elected president.
Autumn 2012 43

For the U.S., Rosenberg believes strongly that only
Republican “one-party rule” would produce the
political consensus necessary for sweeping reforms
He doesn’t have to reach too far back into history to find
examples of other countries or regions that have reversed
their fortunes when confronted by the ugly prospect of economic
chaos. Not surprisingly, Canada in the early 1990s is at
the top of his list. Recalling the early years of Jean Chrétien’s
three-term Liberal majority, Rosenberg says the Grits and
finance minister Paul Martin ignored the party’s pricey
1993 election promises and eradicated a federal deficit that
was running, by that point, at well over $40 billion a year.
Chrétien and Martin repeated their trick a few years later
with drastic pension reforms that boosted payroll deductions
but put the country’s retirement savings pool on a far more
financially stable foundation.
His other example: Southeast Asia in the wake of the
calamitous currency devaluations of the late 1990s. Unable
to borrow their way out of the crisis, countries such as Thailand
and South Korea radically restructured their political
and economic systems, allowed major banks to fail, and
endured a wrenching contraction. “The phoenix rose from
the ashes,” he says. “In 2001, no one would have believed
that the next decade would belong to Asia.”
For the U.S., Rosenberg believes strongly that only Republican
“one party rule” – a Mitt Romney victory, combined
with majorities in both the House and the Senate – would
produce the political consensus necessary for sweeping
reforms to both the country’s costly entitlement programs
(such as Social Security) as well as a tax code that produces
an over-supply of housing but not nearly enough business
investment in manufacturing and research and development.
“I think this is actually a tremendous opportunity,” he
says, brightly. “In a period where you have a crisis, you need
effective leadership and it’s tough to do when you’re constantly
compromising.”
He declares himself encouraged by the contentious,
though successful, campaigns by some U.S. state governors
and mayors to wrestle down costly public sector wage and
benefits settlements. Rosenberg also points out that the
housing sector is showing signs of a pulse, while the country’s
unexpectedly productive oil and gas sectors suggest the
U.S. could actually become an energy exporter.
“Maybe austerity is a dirty word in Europe,” he muses.
“But maybe it just means, ‘live within your means.’ It doesn’t
mean stop spending.” It means stop excessive borrowing
beyond what you can reasonably afford. This is advice he
was selling on Wall Street in the heady days of the housing
bubble, and the principles still apply.
In the (not entirely negative) world according to David
Rosenberg, America won’t become a fiscal basket case. After
all, even bad times cannot go on forever.
Journalist and author John Lorinc (BSc 1987) writes about politics and business
for the Globe and Mail and Spacing magazine.
At UTS, students thrive in a community of engaged
peers and passionate, committed teachers. With
opportunities to excel in academics, athletics, the arts
and student leadership, the UTS experience is truly
outstanding!
We would love to see you at our Open House
on Saturday, October 13, 10:00am–2:00pm.
outstanding!
UTS is a university preparatory
school for high-achieving
students, grades 7-12.
For more information, visit:
www.utschools.ca/admission
44 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA

The Great U of T Magazine
Photo Contest
We asked for your best shot and that’s what we got – 450 of them, from around the globe.
Our judges whittled these down to 16 finalists, and, after intense debate, selected the
three winners you see here, who each received $500. Thanks to all who entered!
SEE MORE ONLINE!
View all the winners,
runners-up and finalists at
magazine.utoronto.ca/
2012-photo-contest-winners
↑ Boundless
Winner: “Boundless!” by Nigel Tan
(MD 2011), Toronto
In June, Tan visited the Grand Canyon with
friend Steven Wong (MD 2011) for a two-day
hike. At the canyon’s north rim, Tan set up a
tripod and captured Wong performing what
looks like a death-defying leap. In reality,
Wong was a few feet from the edge of the
cliff – and a several-thousand-foot drop to
the canyon floor. Tan took several shots of
himself jumping from the same cliff, but
liked this one best because, he says, Wong
truly looks “boundless.”
Runner-up: “Drummer,” by Grace Willan
(donor), Toronto
46 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA

↑ People
Winner: “Idiosyncrasies” by Barbara Konecny (BA 2008 Trinity,
MA 2011), Toronto
In March, Konecny travelled to Havana, Cuba. She was exploring the old
town when she saw this graffiti, which to her captured something essential
about Cubans – the ability to smile, despite a cloud of adversity. She says
it was sheer luck that a young boy walked into the frame – and tossed a
ball – just as she pointed her camera.
Runner-up: “Clowns Face Riot Police at the G20” by Sarah Gould
(MA 2001, PhD 2012), Toronto
← Places/Things
Winner: Untitled, by Stephen Sloan (BA 1977 UTM), Fredericton,
New Brunswick
While driving to Florida in March 2010, Sloan and his wife stopped at
Wormsloe Historic Site in Georgia. Inside the park, an avenue framed
by old magnolia trees caught Sloan’s eye, and “just begged to be
photographed.” He took the picture in colour but later converted it
to black and white.
Runner-up: “Ngorngoro Wildebeest,” by Lisa V. Robles (BA 2000), Toronto
The Judges
Cindy Blazevic (BA 1999 TRIN) is a photo-based
visual artist in Toronto. Her photography documents
private narratives within the shifting landscapes of
social and political spaces. Her work will be on view
at the Art Gallery of Mississauga from Nov. 15, 2012
to Jan. 4, 2013.
Lorne Bridgman is a Toronto-based photographer
and contributor to Monocle, T: The New York Times
Style Magazine, Dwell, enRoute, Maisonneuve and
other publications. He lives in Parkdale with his wife
Yasmin and dogs Neko and D’arcy.
Katherine Carney (BA 2008 NEW) is a graphic
designer at U of T’s Division of University Advancement.
She specializes in print, data visualization & ampersand
appreciation
Gilbert Li is principal of the graphic design studio
The Office of Gilbert Li, which he founded in 2004.
The studio’s much-lauded work covers all forms of
print and editorial projects for a clientele of leading
public institutions, cultural groups and non-profit
organizations. He is U of T Magazine’s art director.
Autumn 2012 47

The Great U of T Magazine Photo Contest
Viewers’ Choice
Winners
Congratulations to the winners of the
“Viewers’ Choice” portion of the contest
(as determined by 2,700 online votes).
Farrah Hussain (BSc 2010) earned top
spot in the Boundless category; Eve Davies-
Greenwald (BEd 2011) ranked highest in
Places/Things; and Dr. Michael Blankstein
(MD 2006) won the People category with
his image "Masai" (at right), taken in
Tanzania in 2009.
“I know firsthand that U of T’s Libraries are a great
Canadian treasure. Preserving the cultural and historic
record, supporting today’s students so they become
tomorrow’s leaders, enabling great scholarship,
research and innovations in information literacy—this
is what we do.”
Jesse Carliner, Masters of Information candidate, U of T iSchool, 2013
Jesse carliner
Student worker,
U of T Libraries.
University and
community volunteer.
Information literacy
enthusiast.
Please help us. Your gift to U of T Libraries will deliver the best
education possible to students like Jesse. Or join the campaign for
the University of Toronto by including the Libraries in your giving
plans. It’s one way to help us nurture tomorrow’s leaders today.
To find ouT more, conTacT
Megan Campbell at 416-978-7644
or email mea.campbell@utoronto.ca.
Friends of University of Toronto Libraries
21 King’s College Circle
Toronto, ON M5S 3J3
or https://donate.utoronto.ca/give/show/19
48 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA

All About
Alumni
In the next 10 years,
the whole notion
of the book is going
to change
Allen Lau has a vision for
the publishing industry
p. 50
Wattpad’s
Allen Lau
Digital Prophet
Wattpad co-founder Allen Lau predicts
a book publishing revolution
If Allen Lau’s career as a software entrepreneur ever falters,
he’ll have a brilliant future as an oracle. His CV reads like a
digital prophecy. When Lau was just 12 years old, he designed
his first computer program, a puzzle game, a few years before
Tetris captured the public’s imagination. As an electrical
engineering student at U of T (BEng 1991, MEng 1992), he
wrote his thesis on maximizing the capacity of cellular networks
– back then, cell phones were as large (and as heavy)
as pound cakes, and much less common. In 2002, five years
before Amazon unveiled its Kindle e-reader, he created an
application that would allow people to read text on their
mobile devices.
And, in 2006, Lau co-founded Wattpad, a company that
promises to do for online publishing what Facebook did for
social networking. Simply put, Wattpad allows anyone to
publish online, for free, their own writing – anything from
pop-band fan fiction to the next teen vampire blockbuster –
for others to read, comment, and even contribute to that
writing. While such technology’s been around for a while,
Wattpad’s friendly, intuitive interface has proven extraordinarily
popular: the site currently has nine million monthly
visitors who each spend an average of three-and-a-half hours
on it every month. More than six million stories have been
uploaded, with 700,000 new ones added each month. The
company’s been quick to capitalize on the consumer shift
from desktops to handheld devices – 70 per cent of users
access Wattpad’s content through their mobiles.
Lau, who’s 44, was born and raised in Hong Kong, and
immigrated to Canada with his family just as he was about to
attend university. At the time, U of T didn’t offer computer
engineering so he studied the next best thing, electrical
Photo: Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Autumn 2012 49

All About Alumni
Antarctica is the only continent not hardwired to the Internet. Cold
water and moving ice make undersea cables a no-go proposition
Internet Explorer
“It might even have been that squirrel,” Andrew
Blum (MA 2002) jokes. The first-time author is
having lunch on a restaurant patio in Brooklyn,
New York, right near his house, and a grey
squirrel is running along the fence, making
indignant noises. A squirrel in this neighbourhood
chewed through the casing on the wires
outside Blum’s apartment and severed, for a
day or so, the busy tech and design journalist’s
connection to the Web. “Here was the most
powerful information network ever conceived . . .
stymied by the buckteeth of a Brooklyn squirrel,”
he writes.
Thus was born the idea which became
Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet
(HarperCollins, 2012), in which Blum follows
one tube-encased wire to the next, seeking
to come to grips with the Internet’s physical
existence. “We’re so used to thinking of it as a
non-thing, as this cloud,” he says. “It seems
silly, but I said to my editor at Wired we should
do something about the wires.”
For the book, Blum interviewed some of the farflung people who make the
Author Andrew Blum
follows the wires
behind the Web
Internet go – übergeeks attending a tech conference in Austin, Texas; businessmen
in Amsterdam and Frankfurt jousting for bragging rights as owners of the most
frequented (physical) Internet hubs in the world. He traveled from the place where
the main transatlantic cable surfaces off the coast of Cornwall to the massive
data-storage facilities run by Google and Facebook in mountainous hamlets in the
Pacific Northwest. Always the former geography student, Blum found a reason why
things were located where they were: already well-wired Western Europe had the
right tech-meets-business culture to foster the explosive growth of hubs; busy servers
generate copious heat, so why not put the Google storage centres where the outside
air is cool, and can be pumped through the facility “I learned that geography was
destiny, even on the Internet. Where you are matters.” – Alec Scott
OVERHEARD
Listen to the clarion call
of students: ‘Engage me
or enrage me!’ Help them
build upon the strong
sense of fairness and social
justice that so many of
them are demonstrating...
through their focus on
causes outside themselves.
Avis Glaze (MEd 1975,
EdD 1980, OISE),
educator and student
advocate, as she
received an honorary
degree in June at
Convocation Hall.
engineering. “I really wanted to build something,”
he says, “and computers were the easiest way to
build something. Give me a computer and I can go crazy
all day.”
He built Wattpad’s software with programmer Ivan Yuen.
They recognized that smartphone technology and social
network sites, then still in their relative infancy, were about
to explode. And they also saw that user-generated content
was potentially extremely lucrative – 2006 was the year
Google bought YouTube for US$1.65 billion. Marrying these
three concepts while providing a service – allowing readers
to directly connect with writers they love, and vice versa –
has been the key to the company’s success. The bulk of its
revenue currently comes from advertising on the site, though
Lau says Wattpad’s only reached a fraction of its full potential.
In June, the company raised more than US$17 million in
venture capital financing, with some of that money coming
from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang.
Wattpad has been so successful that even Margaret Atwood
is now a member. In June, she released a new collection
of poems, Thriller Suite, on the site to instant buzz, and in
August, she allowed Wattpad to name a $1,000 poetry prize
– the Attys – after her.
“In the next 10 years,” Lau says, “the whole notion of the
book is going to change. We’re moving towards a world without
gatekeepers, where there are hundreds of millions of
readers and writers. And the line between reader and writer
will blur.” – Jason MCBride
50 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
photo: left, HarperCollins Publishers; Right, Susan Benoit, Diffusion Photographics

All About Alumni
Saad Siddiqui’s role in Inescapable put him only two degrees
from Kevin Bacon, according to website The Oracle of Bacon
Breaking in to the Big Time
How Saad Siddiqui used martial arts
to kick-start an acting career
Saad Siddiqui (BA UTM 2007) could have been intimidated on
the South African set of Inescapable: a young actor in a big
part in a high-profile Canadian movie opposite Marisa Tomei
and Joshua Jackson. But the 29-year-old calmly stared down
his big break. Maybe it was because the Pakistan-born and
He took up martial
arts after the death
of his father in 1995,
when he was
11 years old
Toronto-based actor knows he could
have mopped the floor with any of
his better-known co-stars – he’s a
fourth-degree black belt in taekwondo.
Siddiqui credits watching kung fu
stars Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee with
getting him interested in acting. He
took up martial arts after the death of
his father in 1995, when he was 11 years old. “I think I was
trying to fill in something missing, to have an instructor who
could teach me in the way that my father did. I [still] need
coaches and structure. I thrive under that.”
Siddiqui’s martial arts talent took him around the world
(he won a silver medal at the Junior Olympics), but the
globetrotting wasn’t a big adjustment. Because his father
worked as a civil engineer, his family moved a lot, and by
the time he was eight he’d already lived on three continents.
He eventually settled in Maryland, where he started acting.
But another passion spurred by his father led him to enroll in
political science at U of T. “My dad did a lot of humanitarian
work,” he says, “so it was always something I wanted to do.”
Juggling term papers and auditions proved extremely gruelling,
but “I think that’s where doing martial arts and sports
helped,” he says. “They taught me balance and discipline.”
Toronto wasn’t a bad place for an aspiring actor, either.
Cut to a few years later and Siddiqui’s popped up on television
series such as The Listener and The Border and had a bit
part in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis. Though Inescapable’s
star power and timely storyline set in Syria may provide
Siddiqui with that “big break,” the actor doesn’t mind the settled
feeling that’s creeping into his life; this inveterate wanderer
has just purchased a condo in Toronto with his fiancée.
“I’ve now been in Toronto longer than anywhere I’ve lived,
and I feel like it’s home.” – Adam Nayman
The Apocalypse
Will Be Tweeted
Immersive Theatre
David Fono
One of the most popular shows at this year’s
Toronto Fringe Festival was an interactive
performance called ZED.TO ByoLogyc, staged
as a launch party for a drug made by the
fictional BioLogyc Corporation. Audience
members cast as interns mingled with actors
playing company officers and staff. By asking
the actors questions and posting their findings
on social media throughout the event, the
audience collectively both discovered and
contributed to the storyline: ByoLogyc’s
actions precipitating the end of the world.
The people behind ZED.TO are a group of five
former high school friends that includes University
of Toronto grad David Fono (MSc 2005).
They call themselves interactive producers,
game creators and artists, and their goal is to
create a theatrical event where the audience
doesn’t merely watch, but, through awareness
of each other’s reactions to the story in real
time, has a truly collective experience.
The ZED.TO story isn’t over. You can follow
updates online – via forums, Twitter feeds and
even a graphic novel – as Fono and friends prep
for two more story installments: one at Nuit
Blanche, Toronto’s all-night art event on September
29, and a grand finale in November at
a location to be determined.
“It’s going to be very immersive, very interactive,”
says Fono. “And, I’m sure, unlike anything
that’s happened in Toronto before.” – Staff
Follow the Zed.TO story online at zed.to and on
Twitter at ZEDToronto.
Photo: top, Megan Vincent; bottom, Trevor Haldenby
Autumn 2012 51

All About Alumni
Rowing is the newest sport at the Paralympic Games – it
debuted in 2008. In 2012 in London, 96 athletes competed
The Two of Us
George and
Barbara Rooke
For George (BASc 1949) and
Barbara (Chrysler) Rooke
(BA VIC 1945, BScN 1949),
it was a match made in
music. And almost 65 years
later, they’re still in tune.
George: Having been connected with one choir or another
most of my life, I joined U of T’s All-Varsity Mixed Chorus in
1947. There, the secretary, a good- (and sensible-) looking
brunette, caught my eye and never left it. It turned out that
Barbara was in Nursing, a faculty bereft of males, and I in
Engineering with a scarcity of females. Fortunately, she
tolerated my taking her to a free concert, and even invited
me to her Nursing formal dance. We continue to share a love
of music, and have been in the Fonthill United Church choir
for 59 years. Four years ago, we moved to Lookout Ridge
Retirement Residence, still in Fonthill, Ontario, where we
sing in the Silver Sound choir, and relax to all the classical
music we can find on radio and TV. We have had no spats yet
and probably won’t start now.
Barbara: My first memory of George is of a good-looking
guy handing out Mozart’s Requiem at my first Chorus practice.
After we graduated, he headed for work in Welland, Ontario,
and I went to a Red Cross Outpost Hospital on St. Joseph’s
Island near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, to fulfill my obligation
for a bursary. During that year, we got better acquainted by
Royal Mail: six days a week, four cents a stamp! We began our
our married life in 1950 in a makeshift apartment in an older
house in Welland before moving into our family home in
Fonthill in 1953. I worked for the Welland County Health Unit,
quit that job to raise our family, and used my nursing skills
on our children and my parents. None of our three children
attended U of T, but two met their future partners at university,
as did my parents. Also, there is a three-generation
tradition of the girl taking the lead!
Hunting for Gold
The Canadian Paralympic Committee
dubbed Victoria Nolan “The Metronome”
for her ability to row perfectly in synch
with her teammates. As a world-class
athlete, grade-school teacher, wife and
mother of two, Nolan (BSc 1996 UTSC;
MA 1999 OISE) may just as well be called
“The Juggler.”
Nolan started adaptive rowing (rowing
for people with disabilities) six years ago
at the age of 31 – a decision, she says, she
made as her vision deteriorated due to a
degenerative eye disease that has left her
with just three per cent of her sight. She
was competing at the national level within
a year. She has won bronze, silver and gold
medals at the World Rowing Championships
and was keen to “hunt down gold” at
the Paralympic Games in London earlier
this month. Nolan, like all visually impaired
rowers, wears opaque black goggles to
ensure the playing field is level for athletes
with varying degrees of vision.
– Julien Russell Brunet
52 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
photo: top, Courtesy of George and Barbara Rooke; bottom, courtesy of Rowing Canada

All About Alumni
FIRST PERSON
Can Radiohead Be Jazz
Toronto Jazz Festival’s Josh Grossman
wants audiences to open their ears to
something new
My wife calls me a music snob. She’s probably right.
Music is my life: it’s what I studied, it’s what I do, it’s one
of my great loves. I think there is such a thing as “good”
music and “bad” music. And, in my role as artistic director
for Toronto Downtown Jazz (which produces the annual
TD Toronto Jazz Festival), it’s my job to weed out the “good”
from the “bad,” and decide what will work best in the festival
context. This sometimes gets me into trouble. At times I’ve
booked acts, thinking they sound great, without paying
attention to how the music might resonate with the audience.
I often feel that musicians who push artistic boundaries
– and who challenge their audience – are more exciting than
those whose chief goal is to entertain. If artists don’t push,
art cannot progress. So how do we keep audience members
interested if their comfort levels are being stretched
In my mind, entertaining an audience means ensuring
that they enjoy themselves. (“You’ll laugh, you’ll cry” – that
sort of thing.) Engaging an audience, on the other hand,
means drawing them in – guaranteeing that they’ll like the
experience itself, if not what they experience. As part of my
job, I sometimes book, present and produce concerts featuring
music that may not entertain me – I may not choose to
listen to it at home, for example. But the music I book always
engages me in some way: it’s expertly performed, the musicians
take a minute to explain what’s going on, or they simply
seem to be enjoying themselves.
Challenging an audience is one thing, but I don’t expect
a musician to reinvent the form. At last year’s jazz festival,
I figured I had hit a home run with a show featuring a soloist
playing interesting original compositions in front of a standing-room-only
crowd. I was therefore a bit deflated when a
colleague suggested he hadn’t liked the show because some
other musician has been doing the same thing for many
years and, in my colleague’s opinion, did it better.
Can you imagine if Vincent van Gogh had been told,
“Vince, your work is nice, but people have been painting for
years . . . ” In music, all of the notes have already been composed,
played and heard – there are, after all, only so many
notes to go around. So if a musician is playing interesting
music and drawing in a new audience, why should it matter
if someone else has mastered that particular
style If we musicians can’t have
If I’m moved by art,
I don’t care if “it’s open minds – and open ears – how can
not really jazz” we expect our current and potential
audiences to be open to new musical
experiences
In the jazz world, there is an ongoing debate about what is
or isn’t jazz. As a music insider, I get some sick stimulation
from it all. But, I’m pretty sure outsiders are turned off by all
the navel-gazing.
Last December, my big band – the Toronto Jazz Orchestra –
presented an evening of Radiohead music arranged for big
band. If I had tried to sell the evening to a big band purist,
I might have had a hard time. But the arrangements were top
notch, the soloists were on fire, the band sounded great, and
the club was packed (a lineup out the door!) with people who
would have been unlikely to attend an evening of Glenn Miller
or Benny Goodman. Would Ken Burns call it jazz Who cares!
It met all of the criteria for a great night of music.
If I’m moved by art, I don’t care if “it’s not really jazz,” or
“it’s not really post-modernism” or “it’s not really eroticism.”
(Wait, what) The point is, I’ve been moved. For the love of
art, let’s get away from the nitpicking and concentrate on
engaging the people who come to see what we do, and who
may want to see what we do.
Alfred Hitchcock once said, “Always make the audience
suffer as much as possible.” I’m fairly certain he was kidding.
To me, art performed alone is just notes on a page (or paint
on a canvas). It takes an engaged audience to bring it to life.
Photo: Diane Aubie Autumn 2012 53

All About Alumni
60 Seconds With
Linda Schuyler
Degrassi Auteur
Linda Schuyler has been in high
school for more than 30 years. The
teacher-turned-producer is the
co-creator of the internationally
acclaimed television franchise
that includes Degrassi Junior High
and Degrassi: The Next Generation
(still going strong as Degrassi).
In the fictional Toronto Degrassi
schools, students feeling “shy and
lonely” tackle everything from
overly strict parents to drugs and
alcohol, sex and sexuality.
Schuyler studied film and media
studies at Innis College, where she
says she developed her passion
for TV. A slew of industry honours
and an Order of Canada and
Ontario later, Schuyler opens up
to Lisa Bryn Rundle about the
tumultuous world of high school
TV dramas and her new show,
The L.A. Complex.
You started off as a teacher, how did that turn into creating the Degrassi empire
I was so frustrated by not being able to find any audiovisual materials for my students.
There was nothing for adolescents. Finally I just realized: Maybe I should make it.
Degrassi Junior High broke ground when it came to representing teens’ real struggles.
Is there one moment you look back on and think “I can’t believe we did that”
I think it happened in the first season when we had our pregnant teenager, Spike.
[We realized] there hadn’t been an authentic portrayal of a pregnant teenager on
television before.
With Degrassi (formerly Degrassi: The Next Generation) you’ve broken more ground.
Is it easier now to tackle some issues I definitely find it easier to tell stories [now]
about sexuality. And two years ago we introduced our first transgender character.
Is it significant that you’ve been based out of Canada this whole time This show could
only have been made in Canada. There’s more pushback from the [U.S.] audience
[on controversial issues] than there is here.
Why is having a reflection of teen life on television so important Because it gives young
people assurance. We just had Chaz Bono up here doing a guest role. He runs a
support group for transgender kids. He had one kid say to him: “Degrassi saved my
life. I wanted to commit suicide and I saw the transgender character portrayed on
television and I realized I was not alone.” That’s why I do what I do.
Your newest production is The L.A. Complex. It’s been praised by critics, but Slate ran
a headline about it that read “Surprise! The Lowest-Rated Show in Broadcast History
Is Actually Great.” Is it a sign fans don’t want smart shows I try not to read too much
into it. We know we’re connecting in the digital world – even though we have that
wonderful headline.
How do you make sense of that disparity Oh, you can’t make sense of it. It’s the
turbulent world of television that we live in.
Milestones
Ian Binnie
Several U of T alumni have been
appointed to the Order of Canada,
one of the country’s highest civilian
honours. The Honourable William Ian
Corneil Binnie (JD 1965) was named
a companion, the order’s highest level,
for his contributions to the legal profession,
including more than 13 years as a
justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Named members were: Allan Gotlib
(BSc 1971 UTSC), for advancing chiropractic
research; social worker Alia
Hogben (BSW 1964), for her work as an
advocate for women’s rights and interfaith
dialogue; and Marian Packham
(BA VIC 1949, PhD 1954), for her
pioneering research on arterial health.
The first ever Goodbye with Love
Humanitas Prize was awarded to
David Shore (LLB 1982) in September.
Shore, creator of the just-ended medical
drama House, was honoured for
consistently high-quality writing in a
long-running television series.
Judy Feld Carr (BMus 1960, MMus
1968) has won one of Israeli president
Shimon Peres’s inaugural President’s
Awards. Between 1972 and 2001, Carr
organized the rescue of more than
3,200 Jews at risk of political imprisonment
in Syria.
Commodore Hans Jung (MD 1984),
has been named one of the Top 25
Canadian Immigrants of 2012 by Canadian
Immigrant magazine. Jung, who
was born in South Korea, retired in July
from his post as Canadian Forces Surgeon
General after 31 years of service.
The American Society for Microbiology
has awarded Akiko Iwasaki (BSc
1993 STM, PhD, 1998) the 2012 Eli Lilly
and Company Research Award.
54 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
photo: left, Matthew Plexman, courtesy of the Ontario College of Teachers; right:courtesy of Ian Binnie

All About Alumni
Rendezvous in Paris
Alumni feel the joie at the Vari home
Helen Vari at her Toronto
home, with a photograph of
her late husband, George
Ernest Hemingway once said that there are only two places in the world
where one can live happy: at home and in Paris.
For a few million people in this world, including Helen Vari, these two
places coincide. And in June, Helen opened her Paris home, with its
breathtaking views of the Eiffel Tower, to U of T alumni from eight countries
across Europe for a buffet of quintessential French dishes – and a
good helping of joie de vivre. Among the 127 guests was David Peterson,
attending his last public event as chancellor. Helen, who received an
honorary doctorate in humane letters from Victoria University last year,
observed that “people were very enthusiastic, stayed late and enjoyed
the champagne and all the good news about their alma mater.”
The next afternoon, she arranged a reception for alumni with Marc
Lortie, the Canadian ambassador to France, at the Official Residence
of Canada in France and a tour of La Musée National de la Légion
d’Honneur – “in one of the most beautiful palaces in Paris.” Both Helen
Vari and Chancellor Peterson are Chevaliers of the Légion.
Helen’s late husband, George W. Vari, believed strongly in the value
of education, and together the couple created the Vari Scholarships at
U of T for students who intend to pursue careers in teaching. “I’ve always
been happy to help U of T in any way I can,” she says. “And I was very
happy to host these events. Maybe in another couple of years we’ll do
it again.” – Scott Anderson
Insider Report
Governing Council’s alumni
members discuss the big issues
ahead for U of T
John Switzer (left),
Andrew Szende (right)
Finding a new president and developing a sustainable longterm
funding model are just some of the challenges facing
the University of Toronto’s Governing Council in the year
ahead – and its two newly elected alumni members say they
are up for the job.
John Switzer (BA 1970), who begins his second three-year
term as an alumni governor, spent part of his first term
observing student engagement and encouraging the administration
to find ways to ensure students are consulted on
major decisions affecting campus life.
The now-retired banker and management consultant also
contributed his financial expertise as chair of the council’s
pension committee to help address the university’s approximately
$1-billion pension shortfall. “We have a plan to get
the deficit under management, but the problem will probably
be with us for a while,” says Switzer, who is also a member
of the Principal’s Advisory Council at U of T Mississauga.
The shortfall is an issue he’ll continue to deal with as he
serves as vice-chair of the pension committee; he’ll also chair
the Business Board, which oversees capital projects, real
estate holdings and endowments, as well as external relations
and alumni affairs. He says a key goal will be exploring new
sources of income for university operations. “We need a
sustainable revenue model to minimize our dependence on
annual tuition increases,” he says.
Switzer is one of eight alumni among Governing Council’s
50 members, who include faculty, administrators, students
and Ontario government appointees. Together, they oversee
all of U of T’s academic, business and student affairs.
New elect Andrew Szende (BA 1967) is still learning about
the work of the council. But the health sector executive and
guest lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine is keen to help
U of T continue to lead globally as a research institution.
More specifically, Szende hopes to address what he sees as a
particularly pressing priority – finding a replacement for current
president David Naylor, whose term ends Dec. 31, 2013.
“I can’t think of anything more important – it’s critical that
we get the right person,” he says. – Sharon Aschaiek
photo: top, Courtesy of Victoria University; bottom, Courtesy of John Switzer, Courtesy of Andrew SZende
Autumn 2012 55

Time Capsule
Artist Robert Downing
(at back, leaning forward)
Concrete Jungle
1960s
How the Medical
Sciences Building
got its stripes
The Medical Sciences Building owes its unusual sculpted
concrete exterior to two Ontario artists: Ted Bieler, who
taught in U of T’s department of art and archaeology
from 1962 to 1967, and Robert Downing (pictured above).
The original building, plain and boxy, looked dramatically
different from the front campus’s cut stone structures, so
the artists were asked to design a textured exterior.
But that was only half of Bieler’s brief from architect
Peter Goering. The panels had to be thick enough to contain
reinforcing steel bars.
“I guess one of the engineers had looked at the original
design of the panels, and realized it was not only boring,
but weak – structurally,” says Bieler, who, although
retired from teaching, still continues to sculpt. “So Peter
approached me and said: ‘Do you want to come up with
some ideas for this’ ”
After accepting Goering’s challenge, Bieler brought
friend and fellow artist Robert Downing on board. According
to Bieler, the two of them simply “mucked about” in his
U of T-based studio until they’d created a prototype – using
wood and a table saw to build a scale model of the design.
The thick concrete stripes on each panel, randomly
arranged, cover the steel supports.
In return for their savvy solution, Bieler and Downing were
also commissioned to create a few free-standing sculptures
for the building and its environs. Downing’s stacked cubes
greet students inside the lobby, and Bieler’s Helix of Life
still stands at the front of the building – U of T landmarks
just as iconic as the artists’ concrete panels.
– Karen Aagaard
In memory of Robert Downing (1935–2003)
56 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
photo: Courtesy of University of Toronto Archives

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PM40065699
VOLUME 40 NO. 1
WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA
Stay in Touch for a
Chance to Win!
Cruise to the stunningly beautiful Galapagos Islands,
a UNESCO World Heritage Centre, courtesy of U of T’s
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for a chance to win, visit the “Stay in Touch Contest”
website at www.alumni.utoronto.ca/stayintouch
and fill out the short questionnaire by December 12,
2012 at 4:30 p.m. EST.*
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Alumni Relations, 21 King’s College Circle, University
of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario m5s 3j3.
• Include your full name (and your full name when
you attended U of T if different from now)
• Your year(s) of graduation and degree information
• Your College and Faculty of affiliation
• Your current mailing address and phone number
• Your preferred e-mail address for receiving
communications from the University of Toronto
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Toronto, Ontario m5s 3j3